Playing in Graveyards
by anisotropic
Summary: Inspired by 'The Last of Us.' Voldemort destroyed all muggles and muggleborns and in the years since, magic has become corrupted and diseased due to the overuse and overabundance of dark magic. Snape has been tasked with escorting Hermione, the last muggleborn, to an Order's research facility where they hope to be able to use her to cure the disease within their magic. M to be safe
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So, this is heavily inspired by The Last of Us. It's not a Crossover, and it's completely AU sort of. You know, it's kind of like all those beauty and the beast inspired ones, this is just based on a game rather than a fairy take. Still has magic and Voldemort and all that, everything just happened differently.

Things I expect to get slammed for and will explain now-

-There will be ooc-ness since most of them didn't live the life they had in canon and so were shaped differently, some things are still the same, most things aren't and I tried to keep the core traits there. Hopefully not ridiculous out of character-ness, Hermione hasn't suddenly become a foul mouthed gangsta slut or anything, hopefully it's believable changes.

-I don't actually know England or Ireland, I'm going off google maps when I mention something, so mostly I try to keep it vague.

-There won't be one block of explanation for everything that's happened differently like I've seen some stories do, bits and pieces will be mentioned over time, and some things not mentioned or answered at all because the characters wouldn't actually know.

There aren't spoilers for LoU, but if you've played the game there will definitely be points or themes where you'll be like - that's so Last of Us. OMG I love that game so much! I've been having heaps of fun writing this, hopefully you enjoy reading it. :)

Chapter 1

Hermione crouched low in the brush, bow in one hand, arrow in the other, watching as a pair of Death Eaters battled it out with another pair of wizards. Hermione had considered getting involved for all of a second before deciding remaining in hiding was in her best interests.

What were wizards even doing way out here? Surely they were miles from any wizarding zones.

Theon had told her where wizards made their settlements. After the Dark Lord annihilated all muggles and laid waste to their domains, the wizarding zones had been completely closed off. You needed special authorization to get in and out. London was obviously the central location, but there were smaller secure zones dotted throughout the UK.

Theon had mentioned there were communities of squibs as well, here and there. Apparently they were ejected from good wizarding society.

That was why Theon had been way out in the middle of nowhere when he had found her. He was a squib, disowned by his family when his magic had still not manifested by age twelve. He had learned to survive with the help of other squibs, and when he had found Hermione years later, freshly orphaned and all alone, he hadn't the heart to leave her. She was only six years old at the time, and she would just be another mouth to feed, a burden, but he still couldn't turn his back. He had taken her in, taught her to hunt, to cook, to survive off the land.

And then he had vanished a few weeks ago. Hermione was terrified for him. It wasn't uncommon for him to be gone a few days on a hunting trip on occasion, but weeks...never. So she had left their home to search for him. And three days later, come across this scuffle between Death Eaters and wizards.

Was this what had happened to Theon? Had Death Eater's found him? But he was a squib, they wouldn't kill him would they? They had no reason to.

But then, they really had no reason to kill muggles or muggleborns, but that didn't stop them.

Theon often tried to tell Hermione she was the last muggleborn in the UK if not the world. Hermione wasn't so sure, she didn't _want_ to believe it either.

Theon... She needed to find him. She wished these wizards would finish up so she could be on her way.

One of the Death Eaters was suddenly thrown in her direction, bursting through the bush and colliding with her. The pair of them went rolling across the ground and Hermione heard the distinct snapping of her bow. _Shit..._

Before Hermione could recover herself, she was hauled to her feet and used as a shield by the Death Eater, his arm around her neck, his other hand holding his wand to her head.

The other Death Eater was already down apparently, and the other two wizards hesitated at this new situation.

"Drop your wands," the Death Eater barked at them.

The two wizards, a very tall, very dark skinned man, and the other one with the weird eye began to obey his command, albeit slowly.

The Death Eaters attention seemed fixed on his opponents, so he didn't even notice Hermione pulling out her knife and quietly clicking it open. With as much force as she could muster, and as quickly as she could, she stabbed him in the thigh and dropped to the ground scrambling from his grasp as he cried out in pain. She made a run for it, trying to put as much distance between her and the wizards as possible.

The Death Eater started flinging spells at her and she ducked and wove in an attempt to avoid being hit. But it wasn't enough though as she felt a burning pain on her leg and she stumbled. Before she could even register, her magic reacted to save her, erecting a shield over her person and blocking every spell shot her way.

Hermione looked at them, inwardly cringing at the expressions of shock on their faces. They had to have realised she was muggleborn. Theon had once told her there was a distinct difference in the way her magic felt compared to other wizards and witches. A cleanness or something, he hadn't been able to describe it.

"Impossible," the Death Eater whispered.

The weird eyed one took the opportunity to strike him down.

"After 'er Kings!"

Hermione shot to her feet, refocusing her efforts on getting away and sprinting through the pain in her leg.

There was a loud crack and the dark skinned one appeared right in front of her, she didn't even have enough time to react and she slammed right into him. He tried to hold her steady.

"We don't want to hurt you child," his voice was a deep rumble and perhaps if he were anyone else and this situation not what it was, she might have found it reassuring.

"Let me go!" She tried to wrench herself from his grip, but he was almost twice her size and definitely physically stronger.

She heard the other one utter something from behind her, and darkness took her.

xXx

Severus watched the house across the street from the shadows of the alley way. Damn Dumbledore for calling him back here. He had thought he'd left the Order and all its bullshit behind years ago.

Did he make similar requests of James bloody Potter when he needed something done? Severus highly doubted it. Potter was likely left in peace. Both he and Potter had left the Order after the Lily incident just over a decade ago now, which had resulted in the woman's death thanks to Dumbledore's rather ruthless decision. But then, sacrifice the few to save the many had been a creed the old man had been living by for some time.

How Dumbledore had even found him was a mystery. Even the Dark Lord couldn't find him despite the ever present tether burned into his arm.

Severus let out a huff of air before pulling the black coat up around his neck higher, hoping to keep in some of the warmth and more of the rain out.

It had become imperative for those trying to live off the grid, to rely on magic as little as possible. And certainly to never use something more powerful than a tier one, possibly tier two spell. So drying charms, warming charms, unless it was very important, Severus rarely used them. In fact, he went months at a time without using magic at all.

He existed outside the wizarding zones, where the risk of running into the Corrupted was far higher. They were attracted to magic. It was safer to avoid using it if you could. Severus hated dealing with the Corrupted, men and women who's magical cores had been completely corrupted by the dark magic taint everyone was born with these days. The more one used Dark Magic, the quicker they became less human, and more creature, desperate to sap the magic from others. They were mindless, and so very brutal in their desperation.

Severus had managed to avoid them for the most part, only coming across one or two every now and again. Never large packs. They tended to stick to familiar places, so once urban areas were the most dangerous. There tended to be many gathering around the protected wizarding zones too, likely attracted by all the wards.

Right now though, his biggest worry were the frequent patrols of Death Eaters. Their numbers had expanded significantly and quickly over the years. They had been able to wipe out all muggles and muggleborns. But then the corruption had started as the UK and it's citizens became more and more embroiled in the taint of dark magic.

In trying to save magic from muggles and magic stealing muggleborns, the Dark Lord had condemned the entire wizarding civilization. Only muggleborns retained their purity of magic, not being born with the taint as half bloods and pure-bloods had been and because they hadn't been allowed to use magic, they never learned the Dark Arts, their magic remained untainted.

But now there were none of those left. At least, none known. It was believed they were the key to finding a cure, or at least reversing the damage. But then the Dark Lord destroyed the last known one. _Lily..._

Severus left the shelter of his shadows and hurried across the square now that the patrol had passed. Number 12 Grimmauld Place materialized and he quickly entered, only to be held at wand point by Mad Eye Moody, Shacklebolt behind him.

Severus may not have seen these men in almost ten years, but he would recognize them anywhere, even with their newly obtained scars...and limbs in Moody's case.

Shacklebolt started running diagnostic spells over him to ensure there was no disguise. Such spells had evolved significantly in the past thirty years. But it surprised Severus how freely they were using their magic considering how likely their chances of being tracked were, even in the Secret Kept house. The Death Eater organization had such an iron grip over its citizens.

"The Ministry thinks we're dead," Shacklebolt explained. "Our trace has been wiped."

"Convenient," Severus muttered.

"You have no idea," said Moody.

Severus could certainly imagine though. That kind of freedom was near impossible to obtain. However, if they weren't careful, the Ministry would pick up their scent again.

When Shacklebolt finished, giving a short nod to Moody, the gruff man turned and limped down the hallway, expecting Severus to follow. Shacklebolt took up the rear.

They lead him to the kitchen. God, despite all the years away from this place, they were not enough. Grimmauld carried almost as many terrible memories as Hogwarts. How many nights had he turned up here, covered in his own blood and excrement after bouts of torture for failing the Dark Lord, only to have Dumbledore send him back out there again?

Well, he had upheld his end of their bargain, Dumbledore however had failed to deliver. Severus did not feel any guilt in deserting the Order. What was the point in even continuing to fight? They all had to live like bloody muggles to avoid the degradation of their magic, and they would die, or they would change. So what was the point? The Dark Lord had won. And even were they to defeat him, they would still all die or change and be unable to save their magic. The Dark Lord was no longer the root of the problem.

He took a seat in the kitchen while Shacklebolt set about making tea.

"Where is Dumbledore?" Severus asked.

"Should be here soon," Moody replied.

Severus accepted the offer of tea, it was scarce where he travelled and infrequently resided. So why not take the opportunity when it was offered?

By the time Dumbledore had arrived, Moody had left, claiming he needed to check on something and Severus and Shacklebolt had sat in utter silence since.

"Good evening Severus," Albus greeted with a kindly smile, taking the seat opposite. "You're a difficult man to find."

"Not difficult enough evidently. Why am I here?"

"Straight to the point then," Albus said, clasping his hands on the table. "I need something delivered to Liverpool."

"Have one of your...subordinates apparate it there."

"Apparition is a high tiered spell Severus, and the amount of power required to travel that distance would alert the Death Eaters immediately. And I need all my men here. I am rather...short handed these days."

That could only mean desertion or death. Maybe the other members of the Order were wising up and realising what a wasted endeavour it was. There was a grim satisfaction at seeing Albus fail at something. Even if his success would probably be minutely better for everyone. Port keys were out of the question, even illegally made ones could be traced these days.

Severus had done a lot of things since fleeing the safe zones just to survive. Killing, ambushes, intimidation, torture, nothing he wasn't already intimately acquainted with from his days as spy.

Package delivery may have sounded mundane, but the distance between here and Liverpool was a long one on foot. It would be dangerous and in an area he was not familiar with. He certainly couldn't fly, the Death Eaters owned the skies these days.

"And what makes you think I would do this for you?" He asked. "I left the Order. I believe I was explicit in my desire to never associate with you or your little faction again."

"And I would not ask you were it not so important. You are one of the few, perhaps the only, man I trust to be able to accomplish this task."

"You should know by now flattery will get you nothing."

Albus only chuckled. "It is hardly flattery, merely simple fact. I need you to do this Severus."

"And what is in it for me?"

"I suppose the satisfaction of a job well done wouldn't suffice?" He gave him an almost cheeky smile.

"I am in no mood for your nonsense Albus," Severus said, beginning to rise to his feet.

But the old man placed his withered hand over Severus' own, with surprisingly more strength than Severus would have thought he had in him.

Severus was long ago over everything Albus did and said, how cryptic he could be, how manipulative, even the mans unflappability. Albus was infuriating in almost every way. He also hated how Albus was not actually infallible. For a time, back in the beginning, Severus truly began to believe he might have been. He had placed his hope and faith in the man, he had given the man his very soul for the cause. He had not made a decision he had regretted more. Even that of becoming a Death Eater paled in comparison.

"In two weeks time, we'll have the opportunity to have you cleared from the tracers, to have you registered as dead."

"And how would that help me? The Dark Lord would still sense me. He will know my end of the link is still active."

"Awaiting you at the drop off will be one of my people, a witch of substantial intelligence and power, a former Death Eater like yourself who has managed to sever the tie. She will do the same for you should you make it with the package intact."

"Impossible," he said, dropping into his seat. "There is no way to sever it."

"As the Dark Lord would have you believe, but I assure you, she found a way."

"Who is she?" Severus demanded.

"That is irrelevant. But you could be free Severus. Just make the delivery to Liverpool."

It was definitely tempting. To be severed from the Dark Lord, wiped from the lists of the living... It would be more freedom than he could ever have hoped for.

"I will need some supplies," he finally said.

"It has already been taken care of."

Shacklebolt silently summoned a back pack.

"Extension charms, weightlessness and all manner of protective spells," Shacklebolt told him.

Severus took it and placed it on the table, going through it and mentally taking inventory. Odd, this was double what he would need to make the trip, even if he had to take some lengthy detours.

His eyes narrowed and he looked up to scowl at Dumbledore just as Moody dragged a very reluctant petite young girl into the room.

She couldn't have been more than fourteen, fifteen maybe. Her curly hair was cut short, shoulder length. Her skin was coloured, she obviously spent time outside. And she was dressed in a pair of jeans, black hi-tops and a green zip up hooded jumper. Her clothes had clearly seen better days. She gave a rather impressive scowl to those gathered.

"No," Severus said, his voice flat. "I did not sign on to cart a _child_ through the danger zones."

Severus dumped the pack on the table and made to leave.

"Severus. Please."

Severus turned and looked at Albus, that pleading note to his voice striking something within the younger man. He looked so old, frail and weary in that moment. Severus glanced at the girl, taking her measure. She clearly wasn't happy. He didn't sense anything special about her, so what was so important that she needed to be removed from London so desperately?

"Fine," he conceded. "But after this, we're done Albus. I never want to see or hear from you again unless it's the confirmation of my freedom from the tracers."

Albus nodded solemnly. "This is Hermione Granger. Miss Granger, Severus Snape. He will get you to Liverpool safely."

"Can I have my pack back now?"

Shacklebolt handed her her own pack and she slung it over her shoulder, frowning at its weightlessness.

"Did you take all my stuff?" She accused.

She dropped it and opened it, rummaging through it.

"It has been charmed Hermione, so you will not have to feel the weight," Shacklebolt told her.

She glanced up at him, acknowledging his words, but still double checking that everything was there. She pulled her knife from a side pocket and slipped it into the pocket of her jeans. There was still some irritation that she had lost her bow.

"There is only a couple of hours left of the day and I would prefer we did not travel at night," said Severus. "We will set out early tomorrow." He looked at Albus. "I will need lodging for the night."

"Of course, you're welcome to reside here."

Severus nodded and stalked off towards the stairs.

Though in some ways it was safer to travel at night, in other ways it was not. He did not want to come across any of the corrupted at night. Although the cover of darkness was better to hide from the Death Eater patrols. But the corrupted were definitely the bigger threat. The way they could sniff out magic... the charms on their packs were both an asset and a liability.

He was not looking forward to this task.

xXx

The only good thing about being caught by those wizards four days ago, was the house they had brought her to. It had a library.

She had of course been terrified upon learning they had brought her to London. That was not a place for people like her. Theon had told her as much, and she could clearly remember from her childhood what had happened when she and her parents had come too close to a wizarding settlement.

But the library of this place...she had never seen so many books in one place before. Her parents had taught her to read before their deaths and she had found it was something she very much liked to do.

But in the time since, books were a rarity. In her travels with Theon, she had come across a few in good enough condition to be read, but had been unable to take more than one at the time as she couldn't afford to weigh down her pack too much. Sometimes, if Theon's hunting trips took him into villages or townships, he would bring back a book for her if he found one. She didn't care what it was, she would read it.

Hermione had holed up in the library at Grimmauld for almost the entirety of her stay here, once she had gotten over her anger about being kidnapped.

The regular meals already made for her were something of a luxury too. It was strange to eat a meal that she had not hunted, harvested or helped prepare herself. Kind of nice too, something she could all too easily get used to. But knew she shouldn't. She needed to get back out there, she needed to find Theon. But that would be difficult now.

Dumbledore had told her that once this Snape character got her to Liverpool, it was on to a boat to Dublin, from there to Cork where the Order apparently had a research facility working on a way to reverse the taint to magic. Hermione's magic would help them greatly, having an untainted magical core to work with.

At first Hermione had told him to go screw himself, wizards brought their problems on themselves. However, she couldn't deny there were innocents among them. Dumbledore had really pounded that truth home when he had spoken of the defects magical children were born with, the rise in miscarriages, the sheer amount of men and women losing their children, or about the rise in squibs and how they were disowned and cast out.

That was what had happened to Theon. It was awful. As much as she would like to stick to her guns - after all, wizards truly had brought their problems on themselves - she could not, and had agreed to do what was necessary to help. But he had to find Theon. If he came back and found her gone, he would be worried. Dumbledore had agreed to look for the young man and Hermione had given him a description. She hoped they would be able to find him, then maybe he could come to the facility with her. She didn't want to be alone. Aside from the week or so after her parents deaths, she had never truly been alone. When Theon found her, he was rarely apart from her, and if he wasn't in sight, she knew he would always come back.

Hermione sighed as she sat at the window, watching the rain patter against it. Autumn was here, and it would likely be followed by a harsh winter. What a terrible time to be travelling.

Still, it was kind of nice to be indoors, in a house with a blazing fire and no draughts. In a house that was actually safe from corrupted and dark wizards. The first two nights she had been here, it had been near impossible to sleep. She didn't trust the people here, and that they wouldn't return her pack hadn't inspired much confidence, or that they had confined her to the house.

Eventually, the slow paced days filled with reading and wandering the rather large house had lulled her into a sense of...not quite security, but certainly a lesser level of alertness.

She heard the door of the library open and glanced over to the dark clad figure of her escort to Liverpool. He hesitated a moment upon seeing her there before recovering himself and taking a seat in front of the fire, seemingly content to ignore her presence. So Hermione became determined to ignore his.

Her gaze returned to the window, more specifically what lay beyond it. The sound of the fire was the only sound in the room and the occasional clink of the ice in the mans glass of what was probably Firewhiskey. She had seen Moody drinking that stuff all the time when he was here, he had even given her a taste. She didn't understand the appeal.

"I've never done this before," she said softly.

Turned out she couldn't ignore him as well as he could her.

"What?" Severus asked, glancing over at her.

If she was talking about going outside, beyond the safe zones, he would likely throttle her. He would hope she would at least not be too heavy a burden, that she had some experience.

"Sat at a window before and just watched the outside. It was always too dangerous," she replied.

Severus understood that. It was really too dangerous to stay in one spot over long. And sitting at a window, especially at night with a light source behind you, it wasn't exactly conducive to staying hidden.

"Don't get used to it," he said.

She scowled at him for a second, which was ineffective because he wasn't even looking at her. _Dick. _She looked back out the window.

"I'm not sure I could even if I had the opportunity."

Silence reigned once again and Hermione didn't attempt conversation this time, much to Severus' relief.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hi! To duj: The answer to that question comes up in a later chapter.

Thanks for reading :)

Chapter 2

"You stay close to me unless I say otherwise, and you do what I say, when I say."

Hermione gave Snape a flat and unimpressed stare but nodded anyway. She wasn't an idiot, and she knew he was here to take her to Liverpool, he also must have been experienced in traversing the danger zones if he had been called in especially.

They were standing at the door to Grimmauld, ready to leave soon. They had their supplies, and Hermione had even been able to get in a shower before having to prepare to leave. And one of those little House Elf creatures had laundered her clothes. It truly was a luxury, wearing clean clothes again, even if only for a little while. Washing them in the river as she had when she lived with Theon just never achieved the same results.

"Do you have everything?" Albus asked.

Severus nodded. "I expect to hear from you about that trace. Come Granger. Remember, stay close, stay quiet."

Again with that flat look. Teenagers were hideous creatures on their own, teenage girls even worse.

Severus opened the door and they stepped out into the dawn. They moved quickly and quietly through the empty streets. This part of London was technically within the safe zone, but not as heavily monitored or defended as the original wizard only areas.

He was pleased the girl at least knew how to take direction, pausing when he did, not asking questions when he did something that may not have made sense to her, though he saw her suppress the urge a couple of times. She would get this look on her face, very easy to read this one.

He entered one of the semi abandoned apartment buildings and she followed him inside, towards the back of the building and up a flight of stairs. He climbed out onto the fire escape and they used that to get them over the protective wall. This was Corrupted territory.

She noticed the man become even more alert.

She followed him over to the nearest subway tunnel and Snape moved to head down there but Hermione paused.

"Is that wise?" She asked.

She didn't like the dark, she didn't want to go down there, and from what she'd heard, those creatures tended to congregate there.

"What did I say before we left the house?"

Hermione sighed. "What you say when you say."

Severus shot her a look before heading down. Hermione followed, stretching her senses as far as they would go. Their step had become even more cautious and she saw Snape actually flick on a torch. She would have thought he'd use magic or something. She would ask, but he seemed the type to spurn her questions. Besides, she didn't want to make any excess noise.

She did stay close to him though, right on his heels in fact. Too close even, for when he stopped suddenly, she walked right into him. He had turned around and given her a glare so ferocious she almost took a stumbling step back to get away from it.

"Get low," he hissed.

She crouched down, taking cover behind a nearby bench and wondering what was going on. It was a moment later she heard the sound of shuffling feet. The corrupted shuffled, until they caught wind of your presence, then they were apparently as fast and as brutal as wild animals.

"Stay here," Snape whispered.

She nodded and Snape flicked off his flash light, disappearing into the shadows. Hermione was terrified, she didn't want to be down alone in the dark.

She suddenly heard the unmistakeable sound of choking. Was Snape choking the creature or was it choking him?

She didn't even realise she was holding her breath until Snape reappeared, nodding in the direction he had just come from, his way of ordering her to follow.

In the dim light she was able to see the ravaged body of the corrupted he had just killed. It's skin was sallow and...cracked was the only word to really describe it. There were massive cracks in it, like a porcelain doll or parched earth. It's eyes were milky white and unseeing, clumps of hair missing from its head... Hermione was filled with pity for this creature, it's magical core corrupted, which in turn corrupted it's mind and flesh. Were much of their minds left after they changed? Their humanity?

They continued on, jumping down onto the tracks and following them. Snape had flicked his torch back on, but it seemed dimmer than before. Hermione was half tempted to ask if he even knew where they were going. She really didn't like the silence and the darkness.

The fear of the dark was something she had been unable to shed from childhood. It was in the dark, all her worst nightmares had come true. Hermione would be relieved to be back outside, in the light. It didn't necessarily make them any safer, just brought her a false sense of security that she liked to have.

She suddenly felt Snape's grip on her arm and he flicked out his torch again. Hermione strained her hearing and yes, it sounded like multiple enemies ahead around the bend. How many exactly was impossible to discern.

"Can we sneak around them?" Her voice was so quiet her whisper barely disturbed the air in front of them.

"No."

There were too many of them, at a minimum he would put it at five or six, but it was likely more. If they got too close to them, they would sense them. He was going to have to kill them. He pulled out his gun, quietly cocking it.

Hermione knew that sound and her eyes widened. He was going to shoot them!? The noise was going to attract anything within hearing range.

"Stay close to me," Snape whispered. "I don't want to lose you in the dark."

Hermione didn't want to _be_ lost in the dark. She nodded, taking a moment to realise he couldn't even see her. They rose from their crouched position and moved quietly forward keeping close to the wall. When they rounded the bend, Snape flicked on his torch and shot one, managing a head shot, an instant kill as the creatures skull exploded. What the hell kind of gun was he wielding?

Hermione and Theon had always stuck to blades and bows and arrows, silent killers.

Snape started running as the Corrupted started converging on their position, shooting any that got too close. Hermione sprinted right on his heels. For an older guy, he was pretty quick. More and more of the creatures were chasing them.

"How much longer to the exit!?" She gasped out.

"Just keep running!"

He turned back again to fire into the crowd. They came up to the next platform and Severus quickly grabbed her, practically tossing her up there. He started to climb up after her. Hermione was beginning to freak out a little bit, they were gaining. Her eyes darted around for something, anything. Spotting a chunk of brick, likely fallen from one of the pillars, she picked it up and hurled it at the nearest one, hitting it in the face. It went down, tripping a couple of the others that stumbled over it.

Severus got up and they ran for it, leaping over the turnstiles and sprinting up the stairs. They could hear the unearthly creatures behind them. They got back out into the light, Hermione having no time to truly appreciate it unfortunately as she followed Snape across the street to a busted shop window. They leaped over it and crouched down. They could hear the creatures coming out of the subway. There wasn't even hesitation as they must have divided, spreading out in search of their quarry. Hermione hoped none of them came in here. They both stayed there, trying to keep their ragged breathing quiet so they wouldn't attract attention.

Eventually the noise from the creatures vanished as they put more distance between them, but she didn't relax her stance until she saw Snape do it too. She sat on the floor, leaning against the wall, elbows on knees as she let out a long breath.

"That was intense."

He didn't respond, only looked at her as he pulled his pack around, pulling out a bottle of water and taking a drink. He offered it to her but she declined. She had her own, and she wasn't thirsty anyway.

They sat there a few more minutes before Snape rose to check they were in the clear. He gave her a short nod and they both climbed out, resuming their journey.

"Have you ever encountered those things before?" He asked her.

She shook her head. "We kept far from urban areas, they don't seem to venture far from them."

"We?"

"I lived with this guy, he took me in when I was a kid, taught me to survive, how to live off the land," she shrugged.

"Where are your parents?"

She quirked a brow. "Do you really have to ask?"

He supposed not.

"So what does that Dumbledore guy have over you to force you into this?"

"Nothing. It was what he offered in exchange."

Hermione nodded but didn't press it. She got the distinct impression he would only answer so many questions before losing his patience with her.

They walked on, keeping to the edges of the street in case they needed to hide quickly.

xXx

They managed to make it to the outskirts of the city by evening with all the running they had to do and all the short cuts they managed to take through buildings. This part of the city was very much being reclaimed by nature, it was actually quite pretty in a way.

Snape led them off the road and found a place they could hunker down for the night, beneath a half demolished house. He didn't have a tent or anything, unwilling to set one up. He didn't have one that really blended into the background. Tonight, they could just sleep under the overhang. They would make no fire until they were further from the city and their food would have to be eaten cold.

He took a seat on a fallen plank, gesturing for the girl to sit too. He had actually been sort of impressed with her today. She had taken everything in stride, she hadn't panicked, she had followed his instructions. A couple of times she had gotten too inquisitive, but a glare had silenced her. And she was fit too, she was able to keep up. In fact, he had the disheartening suspicion she might have been fitter than he was. Though it was understandable, she was far younger than him after all, but it was still an unpleasant thought.

Severus winced as he shifted to get comfortable. They'd had a few more run ins with Corrupted, the last one had left him with a bit of an injury to his arm.

He rolled up his sleeve to tend to it, and barely a moment later he was roughly tackled to the ground, the girl on top of him and her knife at his throat.

"You're a Death Eater!?" She hissed it at him.

"I _was_ a Death Eater."

"You don't just stop being one of them," she spat.

Severus punched her in the gut with his free hand, knocking the wind out of her and tipped her over, covering her hand with his own and pressing the knife to her throat this time.

"_I_ did. You ever attack me again, I will shrink you down and you can make the rest of the journey in my pack. Clear?"

Hermione nodded. He let her up and she sort of doubled over, holding her stomach and trying to regain her breath. Severus tossed the knife at her feet and she just looked at him, wary.

He retook his seat and started tending to his arm.

"I take it you've encountered Death Eaters before."

She nodded. He didn't need to know what that encounter might have entailed. He ran with them long enough to know the kinds of things they did with... What was she anyway? Witch? Squib? He supposed it didn't matter. As long as he got what he was promised at the drop off, he didn't give two shits why he was doing it.

"Get something to eat while I do this," he ordered.

She nodded and delved into the packs.

"Don't bother with-"

"A fire, I know," she said.

He wanted to snap at her impertinence, especially for that eye roll. _Pick your battles Severus._

He just focused on tending to his arm. When he was done, he saw she'd laid out sandwiches and water. Best to start with the perishables first.

The house elf that resided there, Kreacher, Severus believed his name was, had made them a few meals. They were under stasis, but even that would wear off soon enough.

"So...Snape, ham or chicken?" She asked.

"I don't care."

"You can have chicken then."

She started eating her sandwich after unwrapping it and watched him clean and bandage his wound.

"Can't you just...?" She wiggled her fingers.

"I prefer to avoid using magic. It's dangerous to do so these days."

"How come?"

"For one, magic attracts the Corrupted. Secondly, certain level spells are easier for the Ministry to sense and track. Thirdly, I'm sure you know how all wizards magic is corrupted."

Hermione nodded.

"When you use a healing spell in this state, you run the risk of your magic beginning the corruption of your flesh, without even depleting your magical core. Healing is not a risk I would take unless the only other option was death. And even then, I would probably still stop to think about it."

"How high a risk?"

"It depends on the wound, the degradation of the healer's magic, the amount of healing needed and the injured's health to begin with."

Hermione nodded thoughtfully, taking another bite of her sandwich. "So why aren't you a Death Eater any more?"

Severus glared at her. "We ran out of muggles and muggleborns to hunt, torture and kill, the job lost its novelty."

She glared right back. "That's not even funny. How am I supposed to trust you when you say things like that?"

"I don't require your trust, only your obedience."

"Why would I give you my obedience if I don't trust you?"

"Because without it, I will shrink you down and you can make the rest of the journey in my pack."

Her glare became more fierce as she realised that was likely going to be a recurring threat. And if he wanted to carry it out, she couldn't really do a damn thing to stop him.

He finished with his arm and set to eating his own sandwiches.

"So how long will it take to get there?"

"A few days, if we make good time. Longer if we don't. Get some sleep, we set out early again tomorrow."

Hermione nodded, pulling out the blanket the wizards had given her. They said it had warming charms on it.

Having magic must have been really awesome, before it all turned to shit of course.

"I need to go toilet."

He gave her a sidelong glance. "Don't wander too far."

Hermione rolled her eyes as she crawled out from beneath the blanket. She knew the rules. Truthfully though, she hated going toilet. It was such a vulnerable moment, and stupid as it may have sounded, she was a little afraid of being killed with her pants down and someone finding her carcass like that, half naked and lying in her own excrement.

Hermione quickly relieved her bladder and returned to their little overhang shelter where Snape was tucking himself into his blankets.

"Are we going to take turns on watch?" She asked.

He shook his head. "We're going to sleep. I've erected wards around us to keep us hidden."

"But won't the corrupted be attracted to the magic?"

"Possibly, but the wards would give us time to make an escape. Better some warning than being slaughtered in our sleep."

"Or one of us could keep watch. That's how Theon and I used to do it."

"I thought you didn't trust me, yet you would let me watch over you while you slept?"

"I figure if you want your payment, I need to get there intact."

Severus didn't bother trying to poke holes in her logic for entertainments sake despite the counter argument on the tip of his tongue. Quite frankly, her compliance suited him and he did so prefer her silent.

He lay down and looked at the sky. It had been a long time since he'd had to travel with anyone. He mostly avoided people, there were very few, if any, that you could trust. He never trusted anyone, he couldn't remember a time he ever had. Dumbledore to an extent, but he knew Dumbledore's motives, Severus knew where he stood with him, he was expendable. To Dumbledore, everyone was expendable. There was hardly even anyone he would trust enough to turn his back on let alone with his life.

And now he was stuck travelling with this slip of a girl. He had to admit some curiosity as to her story. He had never seen that kind of desperation in Albus before. Severus glanced over at her. What was so special about her? She was pretty he supposed, but she didn't resemble anyone he knew. Could she be related to some high level Order member Severus hadn't met? He resolved to no longer think on it. It wasn't his business and he had made it his life's work to avoid things that were not his business.

xXx

"Are you all right?"

Severus let out a pained grunt as he hauled himself to his feet. A section of the bridge they had been crossing had collapsed while he was still on it. He glanced up to see Granger peering over the edge, her brow furrowed in concern.

"Fine," he replied.

Though his arm ached. He looked around. The way the bridge had collapsed, the cars still on it, and the damage already done, he was basically in a pit now. He scanned his surroundings for a way up.

"Do you think you can climb it?"

"I'll have to try," he replied.

"I'll see if I can find something."

"Just...don't wander too far," he reminded her.

He was quite sure he could hear her eyes rolling.

He tried to use the fallen cars to climb, but when he jumped onto the asphalt ledge, it just crumbled and he was back at the bottom of the pit again.

It was a good ten minutes later, as he was beginning to worry about the girl and half tempted to start calling out to her, despite the give-away to their location it would be, that a rope was thrown down, well, not quite a rope, it looked like...seat belts tied together. It looked dubious at best. He tugged on it.

"I know how to tie a knot Snape."

"And what is the other end attached to?"

She rolled her eyes again, oh how he wanted to pluck them out...

"A car. It's secure."

He risked it, he didn't have much of a choice, and hauled himself up. At the top he came face to face with hers, and she was looking rather expectant. He certainly didn't feel like giving her the satisfaction.

"We were certainly lucky there were no enemies in the area with how long that took you," he said.

"You're welcome," she replied simply.

"I don't recall offering my gratitude."

"I read between the snark and found it myself."

Despite himself, Severus felt his lips twitch. But still didn't give her the satisfaction. _Irritating beast of burden..._

"Come along," he ordered.

They continued walking along the bridge, weaving through the busted cars. Hermione ran her hand along one as they passed it, paint and rust chipping off.

"Did you ever get to drive one of these?" She asked. "Or was it before your time too?"

"There were still some that worked, and yes, I had opportunity to learn how to drive one."

"What was it like?"

"It was like..." He frowned. "It was like driving a car."

"Whoa, no need to wax poetic," she told him, sarcasm oozing from her words.

He scowled at her. "You sit in a metal box and move forward and backwards. The ride is relatively smooth."

He saw her fighting down a grin. "So no love affair with the auto-mobile then?"

"No."

"Guns then? Can't say I've ever seen a wizard who relied on a gun."

"And how many wizards have you seen?"

"A couple. Theon and I have traded with some before."

"And what happened to this Theon?"

He watched her expression sour. "I don't know. He went on a hunting trip, didn't come back. I was out looking for him when those Moody and Shacklebolt guys abducted me."

"And why would they do that?"

Hermione shrugged, realising she shouldn't have said anything. She didn't want to reveal the fact she was a muggleborn to him. Who knew what he would do with that information? What if he wanted to use that to get in good with the Death Eaters again?

Severus let that line of conversation drop as she had.

"So where did you learn to shoot?" She asked.

"I picked it up along the way. Needs must."

Hermione nodded. "Theon and I avoided guns, too loud."

Severus just nodded, paying more attention to their surroundings than the conversation. One of them had to. A dark patch in the distant sky had him freeze and she followed his gaze.

"What is that?" She asked.

"Death Eaters. Get in the car."

He opened the door and ushered her into the back seat, quickly closing it behind them. He pushed her low, down onto the floor behind the front seat, ducking low with her. Even though the Death Eaters were high up as they flew, Hermione still didn't say a word for fear of being overheard when they passed. She just listened to Snape's steady breathing in her ear as he sheltered her from being seen and took comfort in the fact he didn't seem to be panicking. There had been quite a distance between them and the Death Eaters when Snape noticed them after all. It was unlikely they were seen.

Severus glanced down at the girl, quite sure she didn't even realise how hard her fingers were digging into his arm. Death Eaters seemed to make her more nervous than the Corrupted did. That was saying something, because she seemed to take their other skirmishes in stride no matter how close to death they came. He watched her bite at her lip, her eyes darting about the place nervously.

He gave it a short while, enough time for them to have passed before turning to look out the back window, catching a glimpse of them disappearing off into the distance towards London.

"We're clear," he muttered.

He pushed the door open, having to kick it a bit since it got stuck. He helped her out, noting how she still stared at the way the Death Eaters went in concern.

"Come on."

"Do they usually come out this far?" She asked.

"Yes."

He said nothing more on the subject. A favourite past time in these muggle-less times was to hunt and run down squibs trying to live outside the safe zones.

This was just the kind of world they lived in now.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Granger run!"

Hermione leaped from her cover and ran, listening to the sound of Snapes footsteps pounding on the pavement behind her. She bet Snape regretted using that spell now. He said it was a tier three, and Hermione could definitely admire its destructive properties, but it certainly hadn't been worth it now. But they had needed to clear a path.

Which had lead them right into the Corrupted. They were persistent bastards. And there were a lot of them.

"Off the road! Into the trees!" Snape ordered.

Hermione did as she was told, leaping down off the road, stumbling a bit with the landing. She ran into the trees, searching for something to help them. Short of a shot gun or a few grenades, there wasn't a lot she could do.

"Maybe you should blow them up again!" She called back to Snape.

And not a moment later she heard the same exploding sound as before and risked a glance back to see chunks of bodies flying in the air. But the hole he had blasted in the mob was quickly filled by more.

Hermione turned back around, narrowly avoiding a tree. She was stuck following the embankment and she regretted coming this way. Open space would have been better wouldn't it? She rounded the bend and came to a dead end.

"Shit!" She gasped, looking side to side for something.

Severus turned up, seeing the bind they were in. They both turned back to the mob. Severus raised his gun to start firing, his wand in his other hand. He wouldn't be able to keep them at bay and he didn't have enough bullets to kill them all, not to mention the time it would take to reload. The mob was getting closer by the second, they would overwhelm him, they would tear him apart and completely sap his magic.

"Snape!" She reached out to grab him, to pull him back further from them, desperation creeping in.

But as soon as she made contact with him there was a loud crack followed by a moment of darkness and suddenly they were on top of that twenty foot embankment.

Severus frowned at her. "What the bloody hell...?"

He was well aware he had not just apparated them.

"Now isn't really the time," she snapped.

She looked down at the creatures where they were piling on top of each other to reach the top.

"I've never seen them act like that before," he said.

"Desperation I guess. Come on, we have to go."

She tugged on his arm and he followed, both of them sprinting off, further into the woods. They ran until their lungs burned and they could hardly breathe, until their muscles just wanted to give out.

The behaviour of that mob had not been typical, at times there had even seemed to be some level of communication and co-operation. The thought alone was terrifying. Could they evolve? Were they regaining some semblance of their human intelligence while still retaining the base desires they originally had when they turned?

Severus stopped them when they came across a very old cabin. It was as good a place as any to rest, though he didn't want to stay there long, perhaps just a couple of hours at most, enough to regain their breath, eat, drink and get a bloody explanation.

Inside the cabin it was dark and musty, its sparse furniture in disarray. Likely at some point, like most places, it had been looted for supplies.

They sunk into the musty, damp old sofa, wondering for a moment if it could even hold their weight with the creaking protestations it gave off.

Severus looked at her. "Explain."

"What's there to explain? You're Order friends figured it out the moment my magic reacted in front of them."

"Impossible, no one's magic can still be that pure."

"Unless you're muggleborn," she countered.

"They're all dead! I was there when the last one was slaughtered."

"Then I don't know what to tell you," she snapped. "My parents were muggles and I have magic, pretty sure that's the definition of muggleborn."

It had been a long time since Severus had felt magic so pure and untainted, not since Lily, and even then, it had been eroded by the sorts of spells she was forced to learn in order to defend herself. They used to say magic was all about intent, these days, it was just diseased, and that disease was very contagious. The Death Eaters were the worst, using the Unforgiveables so frequently, hurting and torturing, and spending so much time amidst others who did so and the Dark Lord, the bringer of this disease. You could practically feel the rot setting into them.

But this girl, she had hardly used her magic by the feel of it, had likely never used it to hurt another.

"All right, you're muggle born."

It really was the only explanation, because he refused to believe she was half or pureblooded and born without the taint. That was an even bigger impossibility.

"Does the Dark Lord know you exist?"

She scowled at him and he knew where her thoughts were taking her considering her wariness about his former affiliations.

"No, at least he didn't. Unless it's gotten out of the Order somehow."

Severus just nodded. "Why am I taking you to Liverpool?"

"There's a boat there that'll take me to Dublin. From there, we go to Cork. The Order has a research facility there that might be able to use me somehow to reverse the damage you wizards have done to yourselves."

Severus nodded again. To be able to restore their magic... It was a hope he had never dared imagine. He understood Dumbledore's desperation to get her out of London now. Merlin...she was quite possibly Wizarding kinds last hope. And if the Dark Lord learned of her...

That mad man refused to admit he made a mistake in his extermination. It wasn't just magic that had been affected, it was the Wizarding world as a whole. It had turned out certain crops were grown by muggles, a lot of their crops actually, so there had been a food shortage for a while as well, among other things. They'd hit an economic crisis when the muggle world was unable to provide their necessities, wizards had had to go out and learn how to do it themselves, farming, mining, and such.

The Wizarding world hadn't been as self sufficient as it had thought, it had built itself off the backs of hard working muggles, and the muggles knew nothing about it, aside from the obvious Ministry liaisons and such.

Then the Dark Lord had started changing things, the Ministry, education, everything. Unforgiveables became mandatory in school, among other dark spells. They were all taught from a young age to wield Dark Magic, and using it while their bodies and magic were still developing, it had taken it's toll on them all. Pureblood children were the hardest hit with the least distance to travel to become fully taken by the disease.

Severus was lucky enough to be born a half blood. His father was of course killed in the extermination, but he hadn't been too cut up about it, the man was an abusive drunk and deserved it. His mother had been spared, despite being a blood traitor and Voldemort had urged the Prince family to reunite with their wayward daughter, all witches and wizards needed to stick together apparently.

Severus hadn't truly understood what it meant at the time, all he knew was he was leaving his best friend Lily behind. He had attended Hogwarts with prats like Potter and Black, but he had brought honour back to his family by being sorted in Slytherin. During holidays he would sneak out to see Lily though, he never forgot her and he taught her everything he learned about magic since she wasn't allowed to attend the school herself.

Then her family had been killed as part of the extermination as well. At first, Voldemort had been targeting the muggles related to true wizards and witches, but then it spread to muggles in general and muggle borns who he claimed stole magic, and that squibs were their fault.

Severus would like to say he never believed it, but he had to admit, for a time there, he doubted. He was so heavily influenced by his desire to make his Pureblood family proud, to impress people like Lucius Malfoy, that he had cast aside his sense of right and wrong, he had even left Lily behind.

To this day he had no idea how she even met Potter, but at some point she had, and they'd become friends and fallen in love. And Severus had been the one left behind.

"Snape?"

Severus frowned at being jolted from his thoughts. It was obvious the girl must have been trying to get his attention for some time.

"What?"

She glanced down at the water bottle she was offering to him in explanation. He took it, taking a deep drink.

"I don't think we should stay here too long," she said.

"Nor do I. When you've caught your breath, we set out."

She nodded, resting her head on the back of the sofa. "The way they acted back there... It...it doesn't bode well does it."

"I would think not."

"Do you think...do you think they could ever be cured if one was found?"

"I don't know."

But he was inclined to think not.

xXx

Muggleborn. Severus still couldn't quite believe it. He knew it to be true, it had to be, but it was still unbelievable. This was, quite possibly the last muggleborn sitting in front of him, staring unseeingly into the fire. And he was responsible for getting her to where she needed to go.

It would perhaps be another two days before they reached Liverpool and were able to part ways. He would be quite glad to be out from under this responsibility now that he knew just how heavy it was.

After leaving the Order and his spy days behind, his sole responsibility had been himself, and he preferred it that way.

He broke from his thoughts at the sound of rustling fabric and looked across the fire to see Granger lying down.

"You should sleep too Snape, you look tired."

He just gave her a flat look. He did not need her mothering him.

"Well, you do." She huffed and rolled over, hunching deeper into her blanket.

Severus did lie down though, getting comfortable.

"Snape?"

"What?"

"How much longer do you think?"

"A couple of days perhaps."

Another silence stretched out between them.

"Snape?"

"Yes?" There was a distinct edge to his voice.

"I know you're getting paid for this, but still...I just want to say thanks."

He had actually taken pretty good care of her.

"Sleep Granger."

xXx

Hermione had protested furiously when Snape had suggested they travel underground again. She thought it was a stupid idea, she could even tell he hadn't been that keen on it either. But there had been too much damage to the place they had come across, it had obviously been fortified at one point too going by the walls and barbed wire. With the precariously toppled buildings and walls, and how difficult it looked to scale them, Severus decided to take the underground path. Hermione would have preferred to go around, but Severus didn't like the amount of time it would take to do so.

And now they were locked in a windowless concrete room, Corrupted pounding on the door they had just run through, and the chain link wall blocking them from going further. The door in the fence was locked from the other side with a chain and a pipe. Severus was trying to shove it open. He couldn't blast it down, he wasn't sure how stable these underground tunnels were and did not want to cause a collapse. And quite frankly, using any magic with the Corrupted so close would likely rile them up more.

Hermione was looking around for something, anything. A small grate on the wall close to the floor caught her eye. A vent!

She bent down and tried to pull it off, but it wouldn't give.

"Snape!"

He looked at her and she pointed to the grate.

"I can crawl through there, unlock the door for you."

He didn't like the sound of that, he didn't entirely trust her not to run off and leave him to die. But he had little choice. And the girl did need to get to Liverpool. She wasn't completely useless, she had a chance if she were on her own.

He managed to tear the grate off and she dove into it, coming out the other side. Severus watched her, half expecting her to run off, but she didn't even hesitate as she rushed to the door and tried to pull the pipe out of it. She yanked and yanked, but it wasn't coming out.

"I can't get it."

He could hear the desperation in her voice and she gripped the chain link fence, looking to him for her next move. Severus was trying to think of something.

"Shoot it!" She suddenly cried out.

"What?"

"The chain, shoot the chain! That should break it shouldn't it?"

Severus raised the gun, gesturing for her to get back in the case of ricochet. When she was safely around the corner, he shot the chain, and it did fall away. Hermione rushed back, pulling the chain out, and the pipe and opening the door.

Severus rushed through, closed it behind him and replaced the pipe. Whether they would figure out the vent he didn't know.

"Move," he said, practically pushing her forward.

They both started running, up the stairs and around the bend, following the corridor. Hermione looked at him and gave a strained grin in the dim light.

"At least we're keeping fit," she huffed out between breaths.

He flatly drawled out a 'yay' in return.

She couldn't help it, she laughed. How the hell had he managed to sound so completely bored as they sprinted through darkened concrete hallways, breathless, with another horde of Corrupted on their heels?

Severus was surprised at her burst of laughter considering their circumstances. But then, exercise did produce endorphins, which did make one happier. That or the adrenalin was wreaking havoc on her.

They rounded another corner, coming into a larger chamber, there was a sewer pipe to their left, another concrete corridor to their right and-

"Stairs!" Hermione cried out. "Up means out right?"

"Not necessarily, but we'll have to take the chance."

They could hear the shrieks of the creatures echoing off the walls behind them, they'd be through the doors soon. Severus made to run, but Hermione stopped him and grabbed his arm, dragging him down the concrete corridor.

"What are you doing?"

"Cast something. They're attracted to magic right? Maybe they'll think we came this way," she explained.

That was actually a good idea. He cast some simple basic wards over a nearby door, it didn't take more than a couple of seconds.

They ran back up the stairs, crouching low behind the railing. They didn't have time to get further, if they kept running, they'd be seen. Severus pulled Granger closer, their cover was small, and he wasn't going to risk boundary issues being what got them spotted.

While blindness was an inevitability, the freshly turned could still see. He leaned over her, peeking out from behind their cover as the noise died down. They did run down towards the magic, though a couple had lingered, seemingly glancing around. It was too dark and they were too far away for him to be able to tell if they were blind or not.

Hermione looked at him, wanting to know how many. He raised two fingers, letting her know their number. If she had her bow, she could have taken them out silently. Though she had only ever killed animals before for food, she was sure she could manage this, technically they couldn't really be considered human.

Hermione looked around, managing to find a clump of chipped off concrete. Severus frowned at her, then realised what she planned to do and he shook his head, reaching for her full hand. She grabbed his wrist and shook her head this time.

"Trust me," she whispered.

Her and Theon had often used such techniques to herd deer towards where they wanted them to go. Only this time, instead of their quarry running from the sound, it would run towards it, giving them the opportunity to get away.

Hermione leaned down, peeking her head out behind their cover. She could throw the stone down into the pipe, it would either clatter against the stone or splash into the water, either way hopefully it would be enough of a distraction.

Hermione pulled her hand back and flung the stone, sending it clattering down. The creatures both perked up, turning in that direction before quickly sprinting down into the pipe. Severus and Hermione continued their climb of the stairs, though trying to do so quickly and quietly. Her shoes and his boots on the metal grating of the stairs weren't as silent as he would have liked.

They got up to the top to a metal door and Severus tried it, finding it unlocked. He opened it, freezing at the groaning creaking noise it emitted for a split second. Hermione looked down over the rail, hoping nothing heard them. Nothing was coming, so she gestured for him to continue.

He got it open and they went inside, it was some kind of break/locker room or something. There were a row of lockers along the far wall, a table with coffee cups and left scattered across it and a kitchenette to their left.

Hermione gestured towards the vending machine and they pushed it over the door, should the corrupted try to follow.

Both took a moment to catch their breath, Hermione doubled over hands on knees.

"I never want to go underground again," Granger huffed.

Severus nodded. He wasn't overly fond of it either.

Though the corrupted were the same whether above or below ground, there was just something about being underground with them that made it that much more nerve wrecking, not that he would admit it to her.

But he was distinctly aware of her discomfort though. Over the past few days, he was beginning to suspect she had a fear of the dark. On nights they had no fire, she would sleep closer to him. He would notice the way her breathing would pick up, almost on the verge of panic whenever they were greeted with the prospect of a dark room. Though it may have seemed silly for a girl her age to still fear the dark, he couldn't fault her for it. Irrational fears usually stemmed from somewhere, and he didn't want to think where hers might have come from. Usually she was so...almost cheerful all the time, but at the idea of darkness, her mood plummeted.

He had to admit, he didn't like it on her. He preferred the somewhat smart ass, amusing girl he was coming to know.

"Let's just find somewhere safe to rest and eat."

Hermione nodded, pausing as she moved to follow him, her eyes landing on something. Severus followed her gaze. Leaning against the wall was the corpse of a man, it looked to be a few years old, there was a pool of old blood dried around him.

"What do you think happened to him?"

Severus couldn't see any obvious wounds. "I don't think it matters. Dead is dead. Let's go."

Hermione followed him silently, casting one last glance at the man. It wasn't the first corpse she had seen since embarking on this journey, but it was the closest she had been to one that wasn't a freshly killed corrupted.

They got outside and he saw Hermione smile as she raised her face to the afternoon sun. Sunlight definitely suited her better. She turned her smile on him, her eyes practically sparkling.

"Much better," she said.

For a moment Severus thought he might have said that out loud, but he quickly realised she was referring to being outside in general.

"I suppose."

He began walking and she fell into step beside him.

"You know, it's ok to like stuff. Sun, fresh air, fluffy bunnies."

"I do enjoy rabbits, they make a good stew."

Hermione laughed. "That they do. Though I have to admit, staying in that house, it was nice having something that wasn't rabbit or deer."

Ah, this was the girl that had been missing in the underground, the one who made inane conversation about nothing. She looked at him, her gaze contemplating.

"You know, you're funny. I'm going to miss you once we get to Liverpool," she said.

Though his face remained impassive, he was surprised at her words. Never in his life had anyone told him they would miss him, for what ever reason and certainly not for his sense of humour.

"I suppose I will miss you too. When being chased by Corrupted, I only had to outrun _you_."

Hermione laughed again, knowing he didn't mean it, because when they were down there, he had protected her, always stayed behind her when they were being chased, sheltered her.

"Pfft, as if you could old man," she retorted.

"Do not confuse experience with age you brainless girl."

"It sounds to me like someone is confusing age with experience. Or maybe I'm just confusing confusion with wishful thinking."

She shot him that grin again. He was about to retort when they were suddenly confronted by three Death Eaters landing in front of them in puffs of black smoke. Severus immediately placed himself protectively between them and Hermione.

"Severus...What a pleasant surprise."

Severus said nothing to his former brother in arms, Rodolphus Lestrange, only giving them a hard stare. Severus could already see the rot setting into the dark wizard. He clearly hadn't lightened up on the use of his magic like Severus had. Severus didn't know who the other two Death Eaters were, but they were at least a decade or so younger and they were so obviously looking to Rodolphus for leadership.

The man was as mentally unstable as his dead brother. He really wasn't fit to be leading anyone. Rabastan Lestrange had been one of the first adults among them to succumb to the taint and had turned on their Lord, who had put him down like a rabid dog years ago.

The Dark Lord had been the first to contract it, becoming more and more...almost reptilian as he lost his hair, his nose... However, he had managed to stop or at the very least, significantly slow the effects. How he had done so remained a mystery he would share with no one, only claiming to be so powerful as to be no longer affected.

Severus hoped Granger kept control over her magic, the last thing they needed was for the Dark Lord to learn of her existence.

"The Dark Lord has been very interested in catching up with you."

"That reunion will have to wait I'm afraid."

How was he going to take them down and protect Hermione at the same time? While he may have been a skilled dueller years ago, his avoidance of magic rusted those skills. And he wasn't sure he could shoot all three before they started firing off spells. Not to mention the nearest piece of cover was quite a few feet away. He was going to have to attempt it, he certainly couldn't stall them into leaving.

In one fluid motion he drew his gun and shot Rodolphus in the face while simultaneously pushing Hermione towards cover. Rodolphus was the bigger threat, and as powerful as wizards were, if they weren't expecting it, a bullet to the face was as lethal to wizards as it used to be to muggles.

He heard the two younger wizards cursing and they'd likely found some cover, or at least erected shields.

Severus peeked over their cover to get a look, he could see one behind a tree, but couldn't locate the other. There was a loud crack behind him and he heard the beginning of a spell as he turned. He saw Hermione launch herself and stab the wizard in the leg with her knife, interrupting whatever spell he was about to utter. She stabbed him in the same place a couple of more times for good measure and Severus pulled her away, shooting the wizard dead just to be sure.

Now they just had the one left to deal with. He tried to locate him again, hearing Hermione's tense, whispered cursing at what she had just done.

"Stay here and stay low."

Hermione nodded, her eyes never leaving the body in front of her. Severus managed to find the other wizard as he shot a spell. He was no longer behind a tree, he was trying to sneak around behind the bushes.

"I could distract him," Hermione whispered. "You could go round and get the drop on him."

"No, you just stay down."

She frowned, clearly not happy, but she didn't argue as a chunk of their wall was blown away by a spell. Severus fired in the wizards direction a couple of times to force him to seek cover. He shifted around Hermione to get a better angle. He couldn't see much through the bush, but he did catch movement he was sure wasn't the breeze.

He fired, smirking to himself when he heard the wizard cry out. Severus hurried over and found the man clutching at his abdomen. He stared up at Severus, his eyes pleading. Severus only raised his gun and fired a last shot. He rejoined Granger.

"We need to get far from here before someone comes to investigate."

"Maybe you should blink us," she suggested.

He frowned at her. "Blink us?"

She nodded. "You know, one second we're here, the next we're very far away."

"Apparition. It can be traced, and it's a high tiered spell, it would draw notice. They could even track our destination by following my magical signature."

"Wow, that Dark Lord guy really rules you all with an iron fist."

"That he does," Severus agreed.

"So that's why so many people leave the safe zones?" She asked as they started walking.

Severus nodded again

"Is that why you left?"

"It was among the reasons," he replied distractedly, just eager to get away from this place before nightfall.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Sorry about the delay between updates. Real life got in the way a bit.

**Chapter 4**

Severus watched her over their fire as she ate, her mind clearly elsewhere. She had been quite quiet since their skirmish with the Death Eaters earlier. He suspected she had never really fought against people before, or perhaps seeing real Death Eaters had caused this reaction. A distraction was likely necessary.

He wasn't sure why he was suddenly concerned about her unusual quietude. She had only stabbed the man, she hadn't been the one to kill him. And she had hunted animals before apparently. In Severus' opinion there wasn't much difference between an animal and Death Eater, although an animal was more deserving of life he supposed.

"How old were you when your magic manifested?" He asked.

He was never one to initiate conversation over the fire and if the lifting of her brows was anything to go by, she was clearly surprised.

"I was six," she replied. "Is that how it happens for everyone? It just...happens one day?"

Severus nodded. "Of course, how it manifests is different for everyone."

"How old were you when yours came?"

"Seven."

"Is it hard? To control your magic I mean."

"It depends on the spell and the level of power needed to cast it," he replied.

"Even if your spell isn't...dark, will it still corrode your magic?"

"There is still debate about that. Some say it is the intent behind the spell that does it, others that it is the spell itself."

"What do you think it is?"

He was beginning to regret initiating conversation. It was amazing how only a couple of hours of her silence could make him forget how inquisitive and chatty she could be.

"I haven't decided yet. I would prefer to avoid using my magic altogether just to be safe."

"Will my magic...degrade too?"

"I wouldn't think so, perhaps if you were to use an abundance of dark spells, or the unforgivables. You are what? Fifteen? Sixteen?"

"Fourteen, most likely. Give or take a few months maybe."

It wasn't as if she had a calendar to mark the days by, or a parent to remember when her birthday even was.

"Your magic is still developing, so it can be altered or tainted. It's in a very malleable state right now. Once you've reached your maturity at seventeen, it is much more difficult to corrupt. Also, I would wager you have grown up far from magic in general."

She nodded.

"Then I would say your magic is about as pure as it can get. You've never used it to hurt anyone? Even accidentally."

A shake of her head now. "When it's done something, it's only ever affected me, and that one time when I blinked- apparated- you."

Hermione shifted closer to him, her eyes lighting up. "Do you think you could teach me something? Just...something small?"

She seemed very eager at the prospect of learning a spell. Severus debated it within himself for a moment. He couldn't see the harm in something small, perhaps just _wingardium leviosa_. It was a year one Hogwarts spell, one of the first ones they were taught, it was also tier one on the scale. It shouldn't even register on the scale in his opinion. And she didn't have a wand so it was unlikely she would achieve it anyway.

"Very well," he acquiesced.

If possible her face lit up even more.

"Can I use your wand?"

"Of course not," he snapped. "You do not touch another wizards wand."

Hermione almost snorted and tried to hold in her giggles as she was reminded of a dirty joke Theon told her once.

Severus frowned at her a moment before actually clicking on to what she was laughing about. It was the same kind of laugh he'd heard incessantly at Hogwarts when mischief was afoot or naughty jokes were being shared.

"Your maturity astounds me," he drawled.

"Sorry, I'll behave. And I'll do my best to...keep my hands off your wand."

He watched her fight her snickering fit again and inwardly sighed.

"If you don't want to learn-"

She instantly straightened up. "I do, I'm sorry. I'll be good I promise. But how am I supposed to do it if I don't have a wand?"

"Wandless magic isn't impossible, it's just more difficult."

"Can you do wandless magic?"

"I can, with lower tiered spells mostly."

"Ok, so what spell are you going to teach me today Professor?"

Severus cringed at the reminder of his old profession. He had been a Professor for a short time a long time ago. He had not enjoyed it in the slightest.

"The incantation is Wingardium Leviosa..."

xXx

"There it is," Severus pointed to the city in the distance.

They were perhaps a mile, mile and a half from Liverpool. There used to be a sizeable wizarding community there as well, but it had been overrun by Corrupted a year or so after the disease became widespread.

She blew out a breath, one of her curls bouncing out of her face with the action.

"I hate cities," she muttered.

Severus let out a low humourless chuckle as he looked at her. She had tied her short hair up into a ponytail, but the front strands were too short to stay bound. Her expression was one of uncertainty as she gazed at the remains of Liverpool, shifting the irritating strands from her eyes. Then she looked up at him, trying to smother...something. There was something in her eyes she was trying to keep hidden from him but it was too fleeting for him to make heads or tales of.

"Just a little while longer and you'll be free," she said softly.

He supposed he would. Not just free of her either, but of his mark, of the last lingering shred of his servitude to a madman. He actually thought he might miss her though. As a travelling companion she wasn't half bad.

"It is nearing lunch time, perhaps we should break first," he suggested.

Her smile was absolutely beaming. Merlin this girl was an odd one, he'd never had anyone look at him like that before. She set them up quickly with their food and they took a seat on a fallen tree.

"Do you think...do you think it'll hurt? Whatever they do to me?"

She looked more like a child as she spoke in that soft voice with that uncertain look on her face. He wasn't sure what to say to that. He didn't know the answer and he wasn't one to give false hope.

"I don't know," he replied, looking down at her, his stare hardening. "Did Albus explain nothing to you? Did he even give you a choice?"

"No, he didn't explain anything. And he gave me the illusion of a choice, I think if I fought him though..."

Severus nodded. The old man would have forced her anyway. Severus was well acquainted with his ways and the lengths he would go to for 'the greater good.'

"So what will you do after this?" She asked him.

"Continue to exist as I always have."

"What did you used to do before?"

He assumed she meant before his highly prolific and fulfilling career with the Death Eaters.

"I was a Potions Professor. After I achieved my Mastery I was the Potions Professor for a wizarding school."

"Really?"

He shot her that unimpressed stare he had. He disliked asinine questions like that and she well knew it.

"Right, sorry," she muttered sheepishly. "Do you still make potions?"

Severus nodded. If he could get hold of the ingredients, he would make them and use them to trade with other settlements or survivors. Sometimes for more difficult to obtain ingredients, other times for food, clothes, shoes.

"Is it hard?"

"It really all depends on the student."

"I think I would have liked to have learned magic," she said, spooning some of the peach juice from her can into her mouth.

With how quickly she picked up the spell he taught her last night, she might have even done well with it. He could honestly say he had never seen anyone take to wandless magic so quickly. Perhaps it was because she was muggleborn, maybe they were just more powerful anyway. Or maybe it was because she knew no other way, she didn't have to change the way she worked her magic from wand to nothing.

"Perhaps they will teach you where you're going."

She perked up. "You think?"

That flat look again.

"Right. You're so prickly."

She elbowed him in the side as she said it and he wondered when she had started to get so comfortable with him. He'd spent longer time with others in the past and they still hadn't warmed to him the way she apparently had. He noticed she even ate slower than usual.

But eventually, lunch did end and they resumed their trek.

"So where are we meeting the other Order members?" She asked.

"Albert Dock."

"Will it be very hard to get there once we get into the city?"

"I won't know until we get into the city," he said, checking his gun was loaded just in case.

"Do you know your way around in there?"

"Not well, I've only been there once."

That was reassuring...

xXx

"No way."

Her disbelieving gasp snapped Severus from his own trance. Littering the ground were the six bodies of the Order of the Phoenix they were supposed to be meeting. Severus recognized two of them, Bones and Podmore. And he recognized another woman as Cassidy Montague, Death Eater. This must have been who was supposed to sever his tether to the Dark Lord.

Severus moved to her corpse, crouching beside her and pulling up her sleeve needing to see it for himself. Sure enough, where the Dark Mark should have been, was nothing but scar tissue. She had done it, this brilliant woman had truly found a way to break the connection. And now she was dead. Hopefully the secret had not died with her. Dumbledore must surely know it.

Shit. What was he supposed to do with the girl now?

"What do you think happened to them?" She asked.

They were killed clean, too clean to have been Corrupted, and they hadn't been scavenged for supplies, that ruled out bandits. And he could feel the lingering darkness of Unforgivables.

"Death Eaters," he finally said.

She glanced around nervously. "How did they know?"

"They might not have, it could have been coincidence."

"You don't sound convinced."

A moment later Severus heard that familiar sound of wizards in flight and shoved Hermione towards the nearest building.

"Hide!" He hissed, practically throwing her into the building through an already broken window.

He was about to follow himself but heard the sound of boots on the concrete behind him. He turned around to find two Death Eaters standing there. Dolohov and Goyle Sr.

"They said you'd come," Dolohov smirked. "I wasn't so sure myself, didn't think you were that stupid."

"And here I thought I was beneath the Death Eaters notice."

"No, the Dark Lord still wants you, he's still short a Potions Master who actually knows what he's doing."

If they were here for him, then they must not know about the girl. That was one relief at least.

"I guess you saw Cass figured out how to get rid of the Dark Mark," Dolohov said, gesturing towards the woman's body.

"I did. Ingenious."

Dolohov shrugged. "For all the good it did her. So, you going to come willingly? I have always wanted to duel you."

He was fingering his wand and Severus could feel the anticipation wafting off him. There was going to be a fight, and if it was down to magic, Dolohov would likely win. Severus had avoided using his magic for too long, especially for combat.

"Will you allow me to draw my wand then?"

Dolohov gestured for him to do so. Severus reached around to his back and drew his gun, firing at Dolohov, only for the bullet to bounce off a shield. Dolohov fired back instantly, sending Severus flying into the brick wall of the building and crumpling to the ground.

Behind her cover Hermione winced, she could guess what had happened, and she had sort of seen Snape fall past her window. She had to do something.

She quietly made her way to a different window, painstakingly avoiding the broken glass that littered the ground lest the sound be overheard. She hoped she could get a look at them, gauge their positions and come up with a plan.

She cautiously lifted her head, able to make out Snape on the ground, one wizard standing over him and smirking as they conversed, the other was further back, but if Hermione could get around, she could get the drop on the furthest one. He looked pretty stupid too, had that vacant, slack jawed look about him.

Hermione climbed out of the window and made her way round to the back of the wizards. They were both riveted on the conversation with Snape, so much so, they didn't notice her.

When Hermione was close enough, she leaped at the wizard, hopping on his back, wrapping her legs around his waist and repeatedly stabbing him in the neck with her knife. The other wizard turned at the sound of her cry and his partners gurgling choking sounds.

Snape took the opportunity to launch himself at him and they both tumbled to the ground.

Hermione and the other wizard dropped, him unmoving. Hermione tried to kick him off her, sickened at the feeling of his warm blood drenching her.

_Holy shit!_

She'd just killed a guy. That had been her intention, but it was still shocking to her none the less.

She got up and looked at Snape who was struggling with the other guy. Hermione ran over and grabbed Snape's gun which he had dropped when he'd been flung back she guessed. She took aim, but with their struggle, she was too afraid she might accidentally hit Severus. It was one thing to shoot with a bow, she wasn't sure how she'd do with a gun.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" She shouted, mustering as much power as she could to put behind it.

The Death Eater was suddenly raised into the air with a lot more force than Hermione had ever been able to manage yesterday.

She took aim and fired, unfortunately, she wasn't prepared for the kick at all. A moment after her shot, he popped out of existence. She must have hit him though, because a few blood drips had dropped on the pavement below where he had been.

Snape was on his feet instantly. "We have to get out of here."

He grabbed her arm and hauled her to the water. They didn't have time to get away. Dolohov would know! He would have felt her magic! He'd tell the Dark Lord and they'd be straight here.

"I can't swim!" She blurted. "What are you doing?"

"Just trust me."

Damn, he hadn't known she couldn't swim, that severely hindered things. Still, they needed to hide. He dragged her off the edge with him, keeping her afloat and dragging her over to one of the support columns beneath the dock.

"Hold onto this, do not let go and stay quiet."

She held it tightly, her fear of drowning likely helping her maintain a death grip on it. Hermione was terrified actually and trying hard not to cough up what water she had inhaled for the noise it made.

"Don't leave me," she said, hoping it came out as more demand rather than a weak plea.

Severus nodded. He had intended to swim over to his own pillar, but the girl was so obviously terrified. And the water was freezing, her teeth were chattering already, best to stay close just in case.

"The Dark Lord is likely going to be here any second. Hopefully they won't think to look down here."

Hermione just nodded, she was already turning blue. Sure enough, above them they heard that crack of apparition, at least six or seven maybe. They could hear voices, but couldn't make out the distinct words over the sound of the splashing water. How long would they have to hide down here? It was absolutely icy. She tried to climb a little bit higher, so she wouldn't have water going in her mouth with every splash.

Severus watched her, her little hands practically clawing into the wood, her lips beginning to turn blue, her whole body trembling.

She could have stayed hidden up there, they would have taken him away without ever knowing about her, but she had risked herself for him, and now the Dark Lord would know there was still at least one muggleborn out there. And that she was with Severus. It would only make their capture all the more appealing.

Severus cringed as he felt that familiar burn in his arm from the Dark Mark. The Dark Lord was calling him, the longer he ignored that call, the more it would hurt.

_Shit!_ It could become very painful, he could very well lose consciousness if it continued long enough. For weeks after his desertion he'd had to suffer through that pain, often blacking out. He was only lucky he'd had something of an ally at the time to help him through it.

"Snape..."

She was trying to climb higher on the column, her nails digging into the wood and she was looking down into the water, her expression terrified. She looked a bit like a drowned rat really.

"Look at me Hermione," he said, her eyes snapping to his. "Just look at me, I won't let you drown."

She stared into his eyes, still looking a bit worried, but the nod she gave him was filled with a conviction he was surprised to see considering how afraid she looked.

"How long do you think they'll hang around?"

Severus gave a shrug of his shoulder. He gave it a while, though not sure exactly how long, but it felt like a bloody long time to be immersed in this freezing water. He looked at her.

"I'm going to check that they're gone. Stay here and hold on tight."

Her eyes widened fearfully, but she just nodded, not stopping him. "Be careful."

Severus had never had anyone utter those words to him in his life. He gave her a sidelong glance before swimming off, but other than that, made no response.

He swam out from beneath the docks, locating a ladder to haul himself up. He climbed cautiously and strained his hearing, not wanting to miss anything. He peeked his head over the top but didn't see anyone.

Could they really have left already? No, it was likely they were combing the buildings for them.

They couldn't stay in this water much longer, the pain of his mark was getting worse and they could end up very sick from the cold. With winter on it's way, warmth was already difficult to come by, especially at night. He would like to be dry and in front of a fire before they lost the sun.

Severus made his way back down, pausing at the bottom of the ladder. Not too far away was the pier where the boat the Order must have been going to use was sitting. They could take it. But they could be seen if they were to go now.

Severus glanced up at the sky. There were still a few hours until nightfall. They couldn't wait that long. He would have to use his magic and hope that they were far enough away they wouldn't feel it. He would disillusion them and the boat, a silencing spell should take care of the noise, but the trail in the water would not be so easy to disguise. Hopefully the sea was choppy enough that it would quickly cause it to dissipate. He would have to give it a try, they had precious little options.

He slipped back into the water and swam over to Hermione.

"We're going to swim to the boat."

"Won't they see us?" She asked, obviously already picking up on his intentions.

"I'll have to resort to magic, it may not be enough, but we have little choice."

Unless he wanted to apparate, but that was too high a risk, apparition and port keys were the most highly monitored spells.

"I'm going to take you to the boat."

She nodded and he turned his back to her. "Wrap your arms around my neck."

She did so, and wrapped them tightly.

"Looser," he snapped. "You're strangling me."

"Sorry."

She loosened up a bit and he paddled them over to the boat and helped her in. Out of the water it was even more freezing, the ice cold wind was cutting. Severus took out his wand and quickly disillusioned them and the boat and cast the silencing spells. He was relieved to see the keys already in the ignition. Thank Merlin for small favours. He was worried they might have been on one of the corpses.

He wasn't entirely sure how to drive a boat, but hopefully it wasn't too different from a car. He started it up, glancing up to make sure they hadn't been heard, then figured out how to go forward.

This boat had definitely seen better days and he prayed to whatever deity was listening that it would get them safely away from here. They sped off, Severus trying to ignore the arctic blast.

He glanced back periodically to make sure they weren't being followed. He saw Hermione hunkered down in the corner, curled up to protect herself from the cold. She was still shivering and looking a little blue, and there was still a lot of blood staining her clothes. She'd killed a man, for him. What was wrong with this girl?

He turned back to the front. Where were they going to go? The Order was going to take her to Dublin, then travel to Cork. Well, he would get them to Ireland, then decide where to go from there he supposed.

He grimaced as the burn in his arm intensified, his grip tightening on the steering wheel.

"Are you all right?"

He looked down at her, he hadn't even been aware she had come to stand beside him.

"Fine," he replied.

"You look pale, and you're sweating bullets."

"It's none of your concern. And you don't look particularly well yourself."

She was actually looking a little green around the blue.

"Just a bit nauseas," she winced. "I don't think boat riding agrees with me."

That or killing a man...

"If you need to throw up, do it over the side."

She rolled her eyes, she certainly hadn't planned on doing it all over the floor of the boat.

She sat back down in the corner, trying to will her body to stop trembling, but the cold had seeped right into her bones. She wasn't entirely sure her shaking was just down to the cold either, she'd been feeling sort of...on edge since killing that guy. Maybe that was the adrenalin. She'd never killed anyone before.

They had been driving for a while when Snape suddenly collapsed with a pained grunt and was clutching his arm.

"Snape!?" She was at his side the next moment. "What's wrong?"

"My arm...the Dark Lord."

He lifted his sleeve for her and she could see the writhing, twisting mark, could feel the darkness radiating off it. Why would anyone let another brand them with this?

She looked back at Snape's eyes. "Should...Should I cut the arm off?"

His eyes widened and she grinned slightly.

"I'm just screwing with you. Even I know it doesn't work like that."

His face twisted back into its customary scowl.

"What _can_ I do though?" She asked, her humour fading quickly.

"Nothing. Drive the boat...get us to land."

"I don't know how to drive a boat."

"I am sure you'll figure it out."

He let out another pained hiss and Hermione grabbed her pack, pulling out the warm blanket, she grabbed his too. With all the protective spells on their packs, everything inside was completely undamaged. She tucked him in and set to figuring out how to work this boat.

xXx

When Hermione finally saw land, she turned the boat to take them far from the remains of the city, bringing it to a beach some miles down hoping it would be safe enough.

She turned back to look at Snape who was by this time, unconscious. Whether asleep or passed out, she didn't know. He had looked like he was in a lot of pain before and she felt awful that she couldn't help him.

She drove the boat up onto the beach hoping it was far up enough that the water wouldn't take them away. She seemed to be living on hope these days, hope that she wouldn't drown, hope the Death Eaters wouldn't find them, hope she wouldn't be slaughtered in her sleep by Corrupted... The list went on really.

She headed back to Snape. By now she had dried out, but there was a chill in her that wouldn't leave, and she was feeling exhausted. It was nightfall by now, so no sun to warm them up.

She sat down next to him. He felt cold, but he was sweating profusely, his face pinched in pain. He wasn't exactly a restful sleeper anyway, he often had nightmares or mumbled in his sleep. Hermione had kept that to herself, she didn't think he would appreciate the observation.

Hermione shook him a bit. "Snape?"

Nothing. She shook him a little harder and he groaned but didn't stir. Ok, it looked like they were going to be camping here for the night. She wished she could start a fire, but she didn't want to set the boat aflame. And she didn't have the strength to carry Snape off the boat and with her trembling and how cold she was, she could barely focus on the magic to float him out, it took too much power to do it without a wand, power she just didn't have right now.

Snape had both their blankets so she lifted them up and climbed in, snuggling into his side. Two warming charmed blankets and their combined body heat should hopefully be enough to help them survive through the night.

It was so fucking cold. Her fingers felt like they were going to fall off. She snuggled closer to Snape but he wasn't exactly giving off much heat, he was probably just sapping it from her. God she wished she could start a fire.

His wand! She sat up and grabbed his wand from his other sleeve where he always kept it, admiring the sleek dark wood for a moment.

He had told her you never touched another wizards wand, but was it a custom thing? Out of respect? Or was it actually dangerous?

She held the wand a moment, she could feel the power of it, it was unlike anything she'd ever felt. It didn't feel bad exactly, there was a faint sense of wrongness but that was it. She figured she should try using it on something that wasn't Snape first though.

She hopped out of the boat and tried it on a few rocks and pieces of driftwood and it seemed to work well enough. It was certainly a hell of a lot easier than trying to do it wandlessly.

Ok, they needed fire now. It was such a shame she only knew one spell, there must have been one that could make a fire, one of those warming charms might have been handy too, she could have applied one to every article of their clothing.

She found a decent place to camp near an embankment that would help to shelter them from sight and set up a fire. Once it was burning merrily she went and retrieved Snape from the boat, bringing him over to her hastily made camp. She didn't have much control, and a couple of times he sort of got dragged along the stones of the beach. But she got him to the fire, covered him with the blankets and snuggled in beside him again, they needed all the warmth they could get.

xXx

Snape awoke to the bright sunlight on his face and a weight on his chest. He blinked a couple of times. There was still a lingering ache in his arm, but it seemed the Dark Lord had stopped the summoning.

He could barely remember much of what happened after starting that boat up yesterday. At least he hoped it was yesterday. It wasn't unusual to be out for days because of this.

He looked down, seeing the blanket covering the bump resting on his chest. He lifted the blanket and saw Hermione fast asleep, curled into a little ball, her head using his chest as a pillow. What the hell did she think she was doing?

"Hey." He nudged her.

"Piss off," she groaned.

Severus let out little huff of a laugh. _Insolent_. He stared up at the sky a moment, he supposed he could cut her some slack, and he wasn't feeling up to snuff either. Down the beach a small ways he could see the boat, she'd driven it right up onto the sand, if they wanted to use that again they would have to wait until high tide. There were remnants of a fire nearby too, she had really tried to take care of them.

He realised he desperately needed to relieve himself. He nudged her again.

"Granger wake up."

"I don't want to. I don't feel well."

"Well get off me at least, I need to go to the toilet."

It felt stupid saying that considering the toilet was whatever bush afforded him the most privacy.

"But the ground's hard," she whined.

"Toughen up."

He slipped out from beneath her and her head hit the ground. She let out another pained moan.

Snape left and took care of his business before coming back to find the girl still completely covered by the blankets and that she hadn't even moved.

He nudged her with his foot.

"Get up, we need to figure out our next step."

She didn't move and he ripped the blankets off her. She did look awful, pale, dark bags around her eyes... He crouched at her side and rested his hand on her head. She was quite warm, likely getting sick from everything yesterday.

He grabbed his pack and took out some of the potions he had. They should help a bit. He sat her up and helped her get them down. She had helped him yesterday after all.

After a good ten, twenty minutes she started to look a little better and even sat up.

"Whatever you gave me is amazing," she said, eyeing the empty vials.

"It's a temporary fix, even we can't cure flu's and colds. But we should be able to get you through the worst of it without you being affected overly much."

She smiled at him slightly.

"We?" She asked. "You're sticking around?"

"It's not as if I have much of a choice now is it. I'll get you to Cork. I don't trust you to be able to survive without me, and if I want my payment, I'm going to have to ensure I deliver you intact."

He just hoped there was someone else who knew how to do what Cassidy Montague achieved.

"Do you know how to get to Cork?"

"I know the general direction, and I'm sure we'll find signs along the way."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

They had been walking for most of the day, not even stopping to eat, just eating as they walked. Supplies were dwindling. They'd only had a little over what it would take to get them to Liverpool, and they'd had to take some rather impressive detours at certain points and Severus had been a bit generous with some of the portions, not anticipating the need to continue travelling. He was also very low on ammunition, not even a full clip left.

He glanced back where Hermione was trailing behind him at quite the distance. Her head ache had returned as the potions wore off. It wasn't anything serious, but it was clear it was causing her discomfort, though she admirably kept her mouth shut about it. But some proper rest and care wouldn't go amiss.

And he had his own trouble in the form of his Dark Mark. On and off all day it had been flaring in pain and it was steadily getting worse. The Dark Lord would likely keep it going throughout the night, not enough to cause him to black out, but enough to prevent him from getting any rest.

He stood there as Hermione caught up to him, considering what they should do next.

If they went back and followed the beach they would hit Wicklow. Severus had an ally there that would be able to help them, give them some time to rest and recover and maybe give them some more supplies.

Perhaps if he was lucky, the Dark Lord would get bored of Severus and stop the summonings. They both knew he would never answer them, their only purpose now was to hurt him.

"We are going to veer towards the beach and follow it," Severus told Hermione when she finally caught up to him.

"Why?"

"There is a town, Wicklow I believe. I have...an acquaintance who resides there. He could offer us sanctuary for a time and perhaps some supplies."

Hermione nodded and they continued walking, Hermione sniffling every now and again beside him. But at least she wasn't a whiner.

xXx

"Did you used to live by the beach before?"

Severus frowned at her very out of the blue question and watched her hop from rock to rock along the beach.

"No. Why would you ask that?"

"You know how to swim," she replied simply.

"I learned how in a pool."

"You had a pool?"

"My grandparents had a pool," he corrected.

"You had grandparents?" Her grin was a cheeky one.

"Everyone has grandparents, whether alive, dead or absent, they still have them."

"I just wouldn't have been surprised to learn you'd willed yourself into existence fully grown," she said. "I can't imagine you as anything other than...well, this."

She vaguely gestured to all of him. Severus quietly scoffed at her words, more amused than anything.

"We should make camp earlier tonight," she suddenly suggested.

"Why?"

"We could fish our dinner. It'll be nice to have something fresh don't you think? And filling."

"Oh?" He said, quirking an eyebrow. "You're storing fishing rods and bait in that pack of yours?"

"We haven't seen a Corrupted or Death Eater all day, couldn't you just make one or conjure one or whatever?"

"If I were going to use magic I could just accio a fish."

Clearly she had no idea what he was talking about. Of course she wouldn't. At her quizzical look, he explained.

"It is a spell that summons an object to you."

Her eyes widened. "You have got to teach me that, it sounds so handy."

"I suppose it is,"

"Ok, you accio the fish, I'll de scale, gut and cook them and you can teach me how to do this spell."

"Very well," he conceded. "I suppose it is as good a plan as any."

She gave him that beaming smile he was becoming accustomed to as they searched out a place to make camp. They found a small space in a copse of trees not too far from the beach, it was safe from being seen and reasonably sheltered.

Once that was done they headed down to the beach and she watched in fascination as he summoned the fish right out of the water to him. She set to cleaning and gutting them. It was messy work but it appeared to be something she had done a lot as she made quick work of it and didn't seem the least bit squeamish over it. The more disturbing part was when she sneezed all over the fish and Severus knew he would still eat it. Cooking it would surely kill the germs. Germs were the least of their worries.

"Theon and I used to fish the rivers near us, salmon mostly, sometimes eels."

"And you never learned to swim?"

"There was no one to teach me, Theon didn't know how either and I didn't want to risk drowning just to learn. It never seemed like a big deal before, or anything I would actually _need_ to know." She smiled wryly at him then. "Hindsight huh?"

He nodded, remembering yesterday and how terrified she had been of the water. When she was done they returned to their camp and Severus made the fire while Hermione set the fish up to be cooked.

Fish wasn't something he had partaken of very often since leaving the wizarding world. He traded for most of his food and it very rarely included fish and he would hunt for rabbits and deer. Once he had even eaten a dog when things were looking dire.

"So who's your _acquaintance_ in Wicklow?" Hermione asked.

"You'll meet him soon enough," Severus replied.

"Former Death Eater too?"

"Yes," he gave her a sidelong glance. "If you plan to attack him too, I suggest you discard that notion, he won't be as forgiving as I was."

She rolled her eyes. Forgiving? He punched her in the stomach and then threatened to shrink her and trap her in his pack.

"Oook don't be a dick. Come on, what did you expect to happen? No one told me you were Death Eater. For all I knew, they didn't even know you were a Death Eater before they handed me off to you."

"Could you have done it? Could you have truly slit my throat?"

He saw her look away, down at the ground, clearly uncomfortable. "I wouldn't have thought so, I sort of did it before I thought about it, but after yesterday..." She blew out a breath.

Severus suddenly felt awkward. "I should...thank you, for your intervention yesterday. Though you would have been much safer had you stayed hidden."

"And they would have carted you off to the Dark Lord and then I really would have been screwed. I did it for me as much as you."

Severus knew she was lying, he'd seen how capable she was. She could have stayed hidden and made her way back to wherever she used to live before.

"And you don't have to thank me, how many times have you saved my ass?" She shrugged it off. "Do we have any more of those potions? My head ache's getting unbearable."

"Yes, we do."

He dug through his pack and handed her a potion. She tipped it back and continued cooking the fish while it kicked in. Hermione actually made a nice fish. As they ate, he began her introduction to the _accio_ spell.

xXx

"There is it, Wicklow."

He glanced over his shoulder where Hermione was coming to stand beside him. She looked out across the town, taking it in. It looked as dilapidated and unfortunate as every other town they'd come across since they left London.

"Where would we find your friend?" She asked.

"The last time I was here he had holed himself up in the Bridge Tavern," he replied, moving towards the town.

"Why would he choose to stay in a town? Corrupted hang around them way more."

"It's easier to scavenge supplies, easier to find shelter, and if one knows how, the Corrupted can become a form of defence as well as walls and gates."

"Death Eaters prefer to avoid them too?"

"Of course they do. Anyone with even an ounce of magic would prefer to avoid them."

"Well, yeah, I know, but I mean, don't Death Eaters travel around in big packs? Aren't they their own army now? Couldn't they just wipe out the Corrupted like they did...well, muggles and my kind?" She asked.

"The Corrupted cannot penetrate the protections around wizarding zones any more. And the number of Corrupted far outnumber the amount of active Death Eaters. Also, Death Eaters rely on their magic and the Corrupted have a natural resistance to it. The killing curse and Imperio don't work on them at all, and the Cruciatus has little effect. Slicing hexes are best, but even still..."

He had fought those creatures with Death Eaters while he still ran with that group, and they had lost so many people to them. They just absolutely swarmed them, attracted by the magic being flung about. And using magic in their presence only seemed to make them more aggressive, or just more desperate.

"Have you fought many in your time?"

"A fair few yes," he replied.

They wandered through the narrow streets of the town, meandering around discarded cars, over piles of rubbish as they spoke.

"This place doesn't seem too infested," Hermione noted.

"So far. Do not lower your guard."

She just nodded and they continued their walk in silence until Severus suddenly stopped, holding his arm out and barring Hermione from going forward any further. She paused and looked around for what might have caused this reaction in him.

"See that?"

He nodded at something towards the ground and she frowned, it took a moment but she saw it glinting in the light and tilted her head to get a better angle. Stretching along the ground, perhaps a few inches above the cracked asphalt was what looked like a fishing line. It was difficult to see, obscured by the grass growing between the cracks and it being see through. She followed it but it disappeared into the buildings either side of the road.

"What's it for?"

"A trap most likely. I don't know what would happen though."

"We've seen it, can't we just step over it?"

"I would prefer we didn't go near it if I don't know what it actually does. There could be another way to set it off. We'll go around, cut through that building there," he said, pointing towards the house. Hermione nodded and made her way over.

"Be very careful, there could be more."

"Courtesy of your friend?"

"I certainly hope so."

He did not even want to entertain the idea that someone else entirely resided here, a stranger would likely not help them. Or, an even worse notion though highly unlikely, the Corrupted were now intelligent enough to build traps.

They entered the building, the remnants of somebody's home. The door was already busted out, along with part of the wall so there were no obstacles to getting inside.

They entered what was the living room, as per the norm, quickly scanning the room for anything useful. Hermione's gasp caused him to tense and he watched her rush over to a pile of books picking up a thick tome and showing it to him with a big grin on her face. _The Shining Ones._

"I read the sequel to this, I was totally hooked. Now I get to find out what happened before _The Hidden City_."

She shoved it into her pack, obviously chuffed with her find. He gave a faint smile at her enthusiasm over a book. He figured she was a bit of an academic, or would have been had she been born in the right age. She was eager to learn and she picked things up quickly, she enjoyed reading, apparently all kinds of books, not only fiction and she had a very inquisitive mind, while it also annoyed him, he could appreciate her curiosity, just not very often.

They continued through to the back of the house, checking out the kitchen and the bathroom. Though likely looted, it was something they always did. Bathrooms and kitchens had the highest chance for something useful, and it was where people tended to keep medications and first aid kits.

Hermione was in the kitchen while Snape was upstairs in the bathroom. When he came back down she showed him what she found. Half a bottle Chesty cough medicine. She smiled at him and wiggled her eyebrows, urging him to acknowledge her amazing find. It could be useful with winter so close.

"I think I can do one better," he said, dropping a little packet onto the bench and her eyes widened.

"No way..." She looked up at him in amazement. "Please tell me you're going to share that, otherwise that's just cruel."

He picked it up and broke the chocolate in half, handing some to her. Before she could take it, he snatched it away. "Remember this, because there will come a time when I will expect recompense."

They sat themselves on the bench and enjoyed their chocolate in silence, savouring each bite. Hermione had only ever had chocolate twice in her whole life and what an experience it had been. She looked over at Snape.

"I think I just fell in love with you."

"Then you have to be one of the most easiest women I've ever met."

She just laughed lightly. "Considering the rarity of chocolate, I wouldn't have thought so."

"You forget, it's only so rare outside the safe zones."

While they ate their chocolate Hermione pulled out the book and flipped it open, reading the synopsis on the jacket.

"Do you think this guy's still alive?" She asked.

Severus glanced at the authors name. _David Eddings_. Severus highly doubted it, especially if he was a muggle.

"Do you really think there are no more muggles or muggleborns out there?"

"In the UK, I find it very unlikely," he replied honestly.

"What about the other countries? Did the Dark Lord really spread so far?"

"The Death Eater movement started in the late nineteen forties so-"

"That means absolutely nothing to me," she cut him off. "I have no idea what year it is now."

"We are at the end of nineteen ninety-four I believe. Pure blood supremacy has run rampant through most wizarding communities before the Dark Lord even began his work, there were even a few countries who still executed muggleborns as the norm. It didn't take much to unite the other countries and inflame the old hatreds. And when it came down to it, muggles had no defence against magic, they had never even seen such things."

"How could everyone just go along with it though? How could they sit by and do nothing while genocide was being committed?"

She seemed genuinely confused at how such an injustice could have been allowed to happen.

"Not everyone did. The Order of the Phoenix was not the only faction to rise up against the Death Eaters."

Hermione just nodded her head sadly. Clearly it wasn't enough though.

"But there would have to be some people out there, I mean look at me, I've spent years hiding within the very seat of the Dark Lord's power. It's not out of the realm of possibility for others to as well, especially in a place that isn't as heavily influenced by him."

"No, I suppose it's not," he agreed.

He didn't understand why this was so important to her. Even if there were others out there, the chances of her actually meeting them were practically non existent at best.

"How are they able to find muggleborns so easily anyway?" She asked.

"School registers."

She frowned at him, expecting a more full explanation.

"Every magical school has a register, a student makes it to that register the moment their magic manifests, along with pertinent details, their address, birth date, parents identities and their blood status."

She scowled at him. "Why is it necessary to include blood status?"

"Most of these schools have been around for hundreds of years and back then, blood status was an important factor, muggle borns have always been discriminated against, at some points in history, half bloods too."

"So what are you? Pureblood or half blood?"

"Half."

He could see she wanted to ask more but wouldn't for fear he would get angry with her. They had stayed away from personal information. Occasionally she would offer something about the Theon boy she lived with, but that was it. He inwardly sighed. What would be the harm he supposed.

"My father was a muggle, he was part of the extermination when I was a boy."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Don't be, it was no loss."

"Death Eaters killed my parents too when I was a kid," she offered.

Severus just nodded. He knew he wasn't apart of it, he had likely turned sides shortly after she was born, and he had certainly not killed any muggles in the last fifteen years. There were hardly any muggles left around that time.

He glanced down at her. "Do you know how they found you?"

She looked at him sadly. "My guess, that school register of yours. My magic had manifested in the morning, and they turned up that evening."

Of course she would have made the same connections he was making. She was quick like that.

"Normally we were always on the move, we never stayed in one place. But it was my birthday. We'd stayed in an abandoned house for a few days, my parents, they wanted to give me a day to remember, a day of fun, they played games with me. I remember...pin the tail on the donkey, it was the crappiest drawn donkey I've ever seen. My dad drew it." A faint smile played about her lips before vanishing entirely. "They did give me a day to remember though." Her expression darkened. "And so did the Death Eaters."

She took another bite of her chocolate. Severus wasn't sure what to say. The Death Eaters had certainly ruined a great many lives, utterly destroyed others. But if they went to kill her, why wasn't she dead?

She finished her chocolate and slid off the bench. "I guess we should get back to finding your friend."

Severus nodded and slid off as well, the pair heading out to the small back yard. Severus shifted aside one of the boards of the fence and she ducked through, holding it open for him in return.

"It's just over that bridge, that building there," Severus said once they had reached the next street.

She looked over at the dirty building, it looked like it had been heavily fortified actually. Her eyes drifted to the bridge where there were buses and cars blocking it, it was likely done intentionally considering they were all wrapped in barbed wire and there were signs posted threatening to shoot.

"That's welcoming. A real host your friend."

There was an explosion a few streets down and both of them ducked, immediately finding cover behind an abandoned car.

"What do you think that was about?" She asked as they both watched the plumes of smoke.

"I don't know."

"What if it was your friend?"

"Let's hope he wasn't actually blown up. We'll try to get into the tavern and hope he turns up, if not, we'll take all his hardware and supplies."

Hermione nodded. It would be stupid to check it out themselves, the sound had likely alerted every corrupted within the area.

"So how are we going to get over there?" She asked.

Severus was getting a bit sick of all the obstacles really and the temptation to just use magic was growing stronger. But he had to be even more careful now that the Dark Lord knew about Hermione. It had been rather careless to use the accio charm the other day.

But they hadn't caught up with him, so it was likely the small spell hadn't registered enough to be recorded. But he really shouldn't risk it.

Back to the immediate problem... He'd likely have barriers all around the place he'd made his own, but he would have to leave to get out to the town for supply runs or to reset any traps that went off. So there had to be a way in and out. It was unlikely they'd find it without him though.

Hermione watched him and knew he was trying to come up with a plan, he had that face on. Though he mostly tried to be impassive, there were little give aways, like the subtle pursing of his lips in this case. As much as she wanted to hound him for answers, she wasn't stupid enough to actually do it.

So she waited... And waited...

Then Snape started tapping his cheek with his finger. _That's a new one_. He must really have had no idea what to do now. She shifted from a crouched position to just sitting cross legged, an elbow on her knee and her hand holding up her head. This could take awhile.

She glanced back over at the tavern they needed to get to. "Why don't we just start by following the barrier? Maybe there's a weak point, or an obvious entrance and exit."

Severus nodded, it was better than nothing, and once they had a better idea of the barrier, they might be able to get a better idea of how to get over it. He just didn't like the idea of almost aimless wandering in Corrupted territory.

They got up, and keeping vigilant, followed the barrier. They had only been walking ten minutes when they heard the sound of the Corrupted. They both ducked behind a car, listening. There was hissing and groaning, and the sound of metal twanging.

Severus frowned slightly as he peered over the top of the car, sure enough, down the road a ways was a Corrupted trapped in the barbed wire, all tangled up in it.

"It's nothing," he told her. "Come on."

They both resumed their trek and Hermione stared at the creature as they passed it.

"Shouldn't we put it out of its misery or something?"

She did feel a little sorry for it. Being tangled up in barbed wire that way had to be painful. Severus heaved a sigh and pulled out his own blade, reaching for the things head, tilting it back and slitting its throat. There was no way he was wasting a bullet on it and he certainly didn't want to attract any more attention to them.

They followed the barrier around, it was pretty consistent the whole way - cars used as barriers, at times buses, sometimes road work barriers, all heavily covered in barbed wire, sometimes traps. There were quite a few bodies trapped within the wire as well. It seemed to be effective at keeping the Corrupted out.

Severus was eyeing up a bus. The barbed wire didn't reach all the way to the top. A long enough ladder would get them over the barbed wire safely. It was a simple solution, but effective. He outlined his idea to Hermione and both agreed on it. Searching the garages of peoples homes would be good place to start their search for a ladder.

"Should we split up? We'd cover more ground."

He eyed her sceptically. She had nothing but her little knife to protect her. While he knew she was somewhat capable, he would just prefer she remain where he could see her.

"No, we'll stay together."

"I can take care of myself Snape," she told him, crossing her arms over her chest.

"If that were the case, I would not have been tasked with escorting you."

"Maybe Dumbledore just didn't trust me to go where I should."

"I would say it was a little of both. You have no weapons aside from that pathetic little knife-"

"Which saved your ass."

"Yes, it defies logic," he drawled it sarcastically. "Do not argue with me Granger, I am in no mood."

She sighed but didn't fight him on it. There was no point. _Stubborn ass_.

When they finally had a usable ladder after a good hour or so of searching, they returned to the bus and set it up, climbing up, Severus holding the ladder steady while she climbed. She did the same for him as he climbed, then they pulled the ladder up with them, best to be safe.

Hermione jumped down first, Severus a second later. He heard Hermione gasp and saw her tense out of the corner of his eye. He turned, only to come face to face with the wrong end of a shotgun.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Luna de Papel - If that had of been a guess, good guess! As for House Elves and other magical creatures, it's explained in time.

Thanks for the reviews, alerts and faves. Updates have really slowed down due to actually playing Last of Us and now Saints 4! Love those games. Plus you know...real life, son, work, all that stuff isn't helping.

**Chapter 6**

"Severus?"

"Yes, it's me. Lower your bloody gun."

"Prove it."

"You watched over me for weeks after I deserted the Death Eaters and had to suffer through the pain of the summoning," Severus snapped.

"Not good enough, something else."

"I was the one who helped you escape the dungeons of Malfoy Manor after the Dark Lord discovered your disloyalty."

He nodded and Severus and Hermione began to lower their arms. Hermione's however shot straight back up as he turned the gun on her.

"And the girl?"

"Is with me," Severus told him. "She is no spy and certainly no Death Eater."

"You're vouching for her?"

"Will kill her myself if she does anything suspicious," Severus assured.

He finally lowered his gun and Hermione couldn't help the passing thought that he was actually quite attractive now that he wasn't glaring daggers at her.

"Hermione Granger, Regulus Black," Severus introduced.

"...Nice to meet you," Hermione said.

Attractive or not, he had still held a gun to her and obtained Severus' word he would kill her if he had to.

He only let out a little 'hmph' noise as he rested his shotgun on his shoulder, flicking his long dark hair out of his face as he turned back to Severus.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" He asked.

"I need some gear."

"You think I'm just going to _give_ you my supplies?"

He turned and started making his way into the tavern, Hermione and Severus following behind. They got inside and Regulus started doing up a rather large number of bolts and chains over the door, one of them a big bloody barricade.

"That explosion before..." Severus began.

"It was one of my traps going off," Regulus replied.

He set his gun down at the bar and they all took a seat on the stools. He poured them all a drink, in thick jars. Hermione frowned at hers, there were perfectly good glasses on the shelves behind him, why were they drinking out of jars?

"Now, explain to me why I'm giving you my supplies?"

"We are travelling to Cork. We need them. And you owe me."

"Owe you!?" He looked positively livid.

"Yes, I saved you from Malfoy Manor-"

"I hid you from the Dark Lord when you deserted them."

"And I repaid you by helping you clear Wicklow of Corrupted. So you still owe me."

"Can't you just help each other because you're friends?" Hermione asked, exasperation clouding her tone.

Both men turned looks of scepticism on her, but her comment did help diffuse some of the tension. Regulus actually chuckled.

"Who the hell is this kid Severus?" He asked.

Hermione scowled at the use of the word 'kid'.

"My charge for the time being."

"The supplies you're after wouldn't happen to be toys to keep her occupied and obedient would they? Perhaps some lollipops?"

Hermione was on her feet the next moment. "Hey! Fuck y-"

Severus rested a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back down onto her stool.

"Hush," he ordered.

She glared at him and he was half tempted to tell her the men were talking and it was time for her to be silent. He knew it would piss her right off, but her anger would serve no purpose he supposed. He turned back to Regulus, amusement still dancing in his eyes. Gods he looked like his mutt of a brother even more than the last time he had seen them. Both had that almost mad look about them. But then, madness was apparently a Black family curse. And living out here all alone year after year couldn't have been conducive to a healthy mental state.

"What kind of supplies were you after?"

"Ammunition and food, what else?"

He scrutinized them both. "I don't have much, and I need all I can get." He took a sip of his drink. "Bandits have come to town, a lot of them. I find my days filled with preventing them from taking over and trying to stay alive more than usual. Help me take them out and I will give you whatever supplies you can carry."

Severus smirked, with the extension charms on their pack, there was hardly a limit to what they could carry. "You expect them to have quite the haul I suppose."

"Of course. And I will split it with you."

"And if they have nothing, I still expect recompense."

Regulus didn't look impressed, but nodded his agreement.

"What are we looking at?" Severus asked.

Regulus stood and grabbed something from one of the cupboards, a folded piece of paper and spread it on the bar. It was a map of the town. Regulus pointed out where they had made their base on the eastern side of the town. He wasn't sure of their exact numbers, they'd likely been culled by some of his traps. From what he had seen, there looked to be a good two dozen perhaps a little less, but he hadn't seen them use magic, they were likely very cautious with it, or were squibs. They were heavily armed however.

"And you really think the two of us-"

"Three!" Hermione interjected.

"The _two_ of us can take care of all of them?" Severus asked.

"We're smart men, I'm sure we will figure it out. Come."

He lead them down to the cellar of the place where he apparently had a bloody armoury hidden behind a wall. Hermione was eyeing the weapons up, most of them she didn't even know what they were not having been exposed to such things, she knew swords and knives, but the different kinds of guns and explosives...not a clue.

Her knowledge of explosives went as far as a bottle of alcohol with a lit rag... She'd used a molotov cocktail only once just to see the kind of damage it could do, she'd just about burned their home down. Theon had been pissed.

Regulus and Severus were discussing tactics as they chose their weapons. Hermione was eyeing up the bows and arrows. _Sweet._

"Granger, you'll stay here and guard the fort," Severus told her.

"But I can help."

"You will help by guarding the fort," he said, his tone brooked no argument.

She scowled at him, knowing it was just him trying to keep her out of the way while he dealt with things.

"Fine, but if you die, I'm taking all your stuff and going home. Screw the Order," she said.

"That is your prerogative," he replied.

He wasn't even looking at her as he loaded the shotgun he had taken from the wall. He knew she was quite capable, but he would just prefer she remained here where it was relatively safer.

She just huffed and returned to looking at the weapons. She reached out to take one of the bows off the shelf.

"Don't touch," Regulus snapped, appearing out of nowhere to slap her hand away.

She looked at Severus and he just nodded. "Do as he says."

She dropped her hand with a roll of her eyes. "So shall I prepare supper for the big strong men while you're out killing bad guys?"

Regulus tsked and eyed her sceptically. "Can you even reach the top of a stove?"

Hermione opened her mouth to retort but Severus interjected. "Shut it."

Severus could see Regulus was enjoying teasing her, Hermione apparently didn't see the humour and was taking it seriously. Severus suddenly dropped his gun, gripping his arm tightly, jaw clenched so hard it was a surprise his teeth didn't shatter.

"Dark Mark still giving you trouble?" Regulus asked.

"It recently flared up again," he hissed through gritted teeth.

"You know, Cass was here a few years ago," he said conversationally, testing the sharpness of his machete.

Severus' eyes narrowed on him. "Was she?"

Regulus rolled up his sleeve to reveal nothing but scar tissue where the Dark Mark should have been.

"She shared her secret with you?"

Regulus scoffed. "_Her_ secret? _We_ spent years figuring out how to free us from the Dark Lord."

Regulus had always been smart, years in isolation with another smart witch, of course they were likely to produce something of worth. Both had been quite the academics back in Hogwarts and were very intelligent. Regulus had been a fellow Slytherin, though in a younger year. Cassidy had been Ravenclaw, incredibly bright.

"Remove my mark," Severus demanded.

Regulus looked amused. "And then you'll help me with the bandits. So what will you do to earn the supplies?"

"Fuck the supplies, remove my mark."

Regulus nodded. "I will, but not until after we've dealt with those bastards out there. It takes a few days to recover from the spell."

"Fine," he hissed, both in pain and irritation.

They would have to wait for it to pass before he could be useful however.

xXx

Hermione had been left alone in the bar while the men went out to hunt bandits. Regulus had shown Hermione how to operate the gate, turned out there was a whole section of the barricade that was not what it appeared. Through a pulley, she could just lift it up. There was a hidden one on the other side that Regulus could use to get in and out as well.

Hermione had listened as they'd discussed their plans, and it sounded stupid. They were way outnumbered. She was actually worried about them, they were going to get themselves killed. But of course, they didn't listen to her when she tried to bring that up.

Hermione and Theon had never really dealt with bandits, but they had seen them and tried to avoid them, and had seen the kinds of things they were capable of. They were almost as bad as the Death Eaters.

They had come up with ways to deal with them, plans on how to escape them, how to kill them, whatever they needed to do. Hermione wasn't completely useless and she knew how to fashion her own traps, and she was resourceful. Leaving her behind was just stupid.

Well, they were going to get into trouble, of that she was sure, she could practically see it now. And she would be ready to save their asses.

She headed back inside, selected a bow and slung it over her shoulder, grabbing a quiver of arrows and shouldering that as well. She selected a few other useful tools and set to it. She just hoped they managed to make it back here when they ran into trouble.

xXx

Severus and Regulus were running. Regulus had been way off on his count of their opponents. That, or they'd had more join them. There was little over three dozen men, and while they'd managed to stealthily take out a fair few, they'd been overwhelmed and had to retreat. They were far too outnumbered and running low on ammunition.

Severus turned back and fired, hitting one in the leg. Shots rang out from their end and Severus and Regulus duck and wove, taking cover where they could find it but never stopped running.

They could see the tavern up ahead, the gate still closed. Where the hell was Hermione? She had better get that gate open... She had one task, one fucking task!

As they neared it, Severus saw Hermione standing on something high enough just behind the barrier. She aimed her bow and an arrow whizzed past him, he glanced back to see it embedded in one of their pursuers.

"Open the fucking gate!" Regulus shouted.

He saw the girl make some kind of movement, and the gate flipped open effortlessly. What the hell? It had taken Regulus much longer than that when he'd used the pulley.

Hermione fired off more arrows as they rushed towards the gate. Then she picked up a flaming arrow from a brazier beside her and shot it. Both men turned when they reached the gate and saw a trail of fire spreading from the arrow and surrounding the bandits, setting others on fire. Hermione picked off the ones trapped within the flames. Those that didn't get trapped in the flame, retreated.

Severus and Regulus joined her up on the hastily erected catwalk. Regulus had built it, but hardly used it according to him. They climbed to see she had quite the set up there, a little brazier with arrows ready to be lit, molotov cocktails, a few grenades and the mechanism she'd used to get the gate open without having to get down from the catwalk.

She was still shooting down those who were in range. It was much easier to do it this way than up close with her knife. She just hoped she didn't develop a taste for killing.

"Is that all of them?" She asked.

"No, there ended up being little over three dozen," Severus told her.

She looked at Regulus, eyes wide. "You thought the two of you could take out all of them? You're nuttier than squirrel shit."

Regulus scowled at her while Severus stifled a chuckle. That was one thing he found novel about her, she could be quite direct.

"It was a miscalculation," Regulus snapped. "And who said you could touch my things? And how did you make that fire?"

He gestured towards the now burning area in front of them."

"Alcohol mostly, found some petrol. But it should burn out soon, I made sure it wouldn't spread."

"You wasted my petrol-!"

"On saving your asses? Yes, yes I did," she replied haughtily.

"You didn't know it would come to this!"

"I was mostly sure it would. Have you ever actually dealt with bandits before?"

She certainly didn't intend to tell them that she hadn't, but she had watched them enough and figured out how they operated.

"So how many do you think are left?"

She was looking between the two men as they calculated how many they took out with how many she did.

"I wouldn't think very many, ten, eleven give or take a few?"

He looked at Severus who just nodded. Roughly that could be correct.

"So what's the plan for dealing with them?" Hermione asked.

It would probably be better to deal with them sooner rather than later, very soon since they wouldn't be expecting another attack tonight.

"We probably could go back and deal to the rest of them," Regulus said.

"Neither of you are injured?"

Severus just shook his head. "I think we could take out the rest with little problem."

"I suppose I have to stay here again?" Hermione muttered.

"I would just feel better if you did."

Hermione nodded, agreeing with little fight because there was less of them now and hopefully the pair would be more cautious this time around. Plus, if there was a repeat of what just happened, it was better to have her here.

"Just don't be dumb. People aren't as mindless and stupid as the Corrupted are," she said.

Severus frowned as he looked at her, she was actually concerned about him, he could see it written all over her face. He just gave her a nod as he walked back inside with Regulus to restock on ammunition.

Hermione kept watch with her bow and arrow. He was quite amazed at what a good shot she was. When she said she had hunted, he honestly thought she had probably just followed this Theon boy and carried the corpses and then later prepared them for eating.

Turned out, he was wrong. The girl was a good shot. Every single shot of hers had hit something vital, brain, heart, jugular... She was shite with guns, but a near expert with a bow. Perhaps he could start giving her more responsibility as they travelled.

When Severus and Regulus left, Severus glanced back at the girl for a moment, she was standing at the barrier, bow in hand and scanning the area for enemies, she had their back if they needed it. That was...something. He wasn't sure what yet, but it meant something.

xXx

It was around midnight and the three were sitting in one of the upstairs rooms which was apparently something of a lounge area now and going over what supplies they managed to get from the bandits. There was some good stuff, food, meds, shoes, clothes, ammo, weapons, gas.

Regulus had a couple of generators he was trying to get up and running, he wanted to electrify his barrier. The generators required gas to run though, and they were still broken, Regulus was no mechanic or electrician so was unsure of how to fix them. He was trying to find books and some of it was guesswork.

"This is an impressive haul," Hermione observed.

"Not as useless as you thought we were then?" Regulus muttered, giving her a sidelong glance.

She made a non committal 'meh' and tilted her head side to side.

"Now that your immediate problem is dealt with, we can deal with mine," Severus said before the pair could start their bickering.

His eyes flickered to his arm where they knew the Dark Mark to be.

"All right. It's going to hurt and it's going to take time to recover from."

"I don't care. Do it."

"Get some sleep, you're going to need all your energy," Regulus said, tossing them both a can of soup each and left them to it.

Hermione looked at Snape. She wasn't stupid. Back in Liverpool, Snape had gone straight to that woman and looked at her arm, finding the Dark Mark gone. That woman had been there to meet them where Snape would collect his payment. Putting two and two together it was a pretty reasonable deduction that the removal of the Dark Mark was his payment for moving her.

So if he got his payment anyway, would they go their separate ways after this? What was to keep him from doing so?

She was going to ask but decided against it. He would do what he would do, she knew enough about him to know that. She would just be left to make her own way. Well, she was stealing this bow. And some arrows. Maybe she should take off while he was recovering from whatever they were going to be doing to him.

She sighed as she opened her can of cold soup. It wasn't in her to just take off like that, she would want to make sure he was ok. And quite frankly, she didn't trust this Regulus guy, he seemed...a few sandwiches short of a picnic really. There was just something off about him, she wasn't sure what it was, maybe it was all this time in isolation. Isolation could do strange things to a person.

She choked down her cold soup before bidding Severus goodnight and heading off in search of a place to sleep.

Severus watched her go, she seemed...subdued almost. What was her problem? He drank his soup, not really in the mood to deal with a teenage girl and her hormones. God what if it was her...time? That wasn't something he hadn't wanted to deal with.

xXx

They gathered in the living room again the next morning, Hermione sitting cross legged on the couch furthest from them while Severus stood in the middle of the room in some kind of spell circle, it had been drawn in Snape's own blood, lots of little runes and things Hermione had no idea of their meaning, but she was certainly curious.

However, every question had been met with a scowl from either one wizard or the other depending on her question. She had learned to keep her mouth shut by now.

Regulus was adding more symbols at the north, south, east and western points.

"This is going to hurt, for you it will probably be excruciating considering you've worn the mark longer than either me or Cass, the darkness will be deeply embedded," Regulus told him.

"I don't care, just do it," Severus said, sick of having to repeat himself.

He was almost shivering with the anticipation of it, to be rid of the Dark Mark... He was so close to having it removed from him he didn't care what it would take or how much it would hurt. He was no stranger to pain anyway.

Hermione watched with rapt attention as Regulus took Snape's arm and with his wand started chanting and casting, moving his wand in very intricate and complicated patterns over the mark. This was real magic. She could feel it tingling around her, could feel her own magic start to hum inside her.

The blood on the floor began to glow, tendrils of magic rising from them and snaking their way towards his mark. As soon as they neared it, they suddenly pierced it, digging into his arm. Hermione's eyes widened as Snape fell to his knees, clearly in pain. The light or magic or whatever it was began to move through his body, she could see it beneath his skin like glowing veins. It spread, radiating from his arm, travelling up it, up his neck and over his chest, she could see it even through his clothes. It snaked out from his collar and up his face, down his legs, down his other arm. He was trying to stifle the pained groans and even Regulus was looking worried.

Hermione didn't like that look. "What is it? Why are you looking so worried?"

"The dark magic is so much deeper than I anticipated."

"You know, you're pretty shit at anticipating things," she snapped.

He shot her a glare. "He'll be fine. It's just going to hurt a lot more than I thought and it's probably going to take longer to recover, and clear him of this."

"He can't die from this can he?" Hermione was on her feet now, clearly worried.

Even through his pain Severus could see that she was worried for him again. Silly girl. He doubled over as the pain intensified drowning out all coherent thought. Hermione stepped forward to do something, comfort him somehow, but Regulus held up a hand.

"Don't touch him. We don't know how the magic would react to you, I'm the caster, so I'm safe enough, I don't know how it would react to an outsider."

Hermione backed away a couple of steps but was still so very scared. "You never answered my question about whether or not this could kill him."

"I wouldn't think so, but I've been proven wrong before."

Hermione wanted to punch him for his lack of a reassuring answer, but another pained cry from Severus completely paralysed her.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The light was more blinding and painful than he had remembered it ever being when he opened his eyes. His whole body ached, like his blood was carrying slivers of glass through him, tearing his innards to shreds. He could feel his magic tingling through his veins as well, though it certainly wasn't a pleasant tingling.

He blinked a couple of times, letting out an involuntary groan of pain as he tried to lift his hands to rub his eyes. A blurred shape entered his vision, hovering above him. After a few more quick blinks he was able to discern it was Hermione.

"Regulus said it worked," she said softly, giving him a weak smile. Though her face took on a sad expression and her eyes flickered in the direction of his lower half. "But...we couldn't save your legs, I'm sorry. The magical backlash-"

Her voice cracked and his widened. His legs!? Regulus suddenly appeared behind her, slapping her up the back of her head.

"Don't be a bitch," he said.

Hermione suddenly laughed. "Yeah, I'm fucking with you, your legs are fine."

Severus wanted to strangle her but was forced to settle for a vicious glare. What was it with her and making jokes about dismemberment? And at the most inappropriate times.

"You've been out for almost a whole week you know," she told him.

Regulus took a seat on his other side, helping Severus get a potion down. From the taste he could tell it would ease his pain.

"But it definitely worked?" His voice came out hoarse, his throat so dry he was nearly taken by a coughing fit.

"It did," Regulus replied. "The Dark Lord can no longer use the mark against you."

Through sheer will power Severus was able to fight the pain he was experiencing and lifted his arms, rolling up his sleeve to get a look at what was left of his mark. Nothing but scar tissue, like Regulus', like Cassidy's. Perhaps if he wasn't so sore and exhausted, he would be more thrilled. He might have even smiled and given Hermione a heart attack in the process. As it was, his eyes just rolled closed and he fell back asleep.

Hermione sighed. At least she was a bit more certain he was going to be ok now. She had been worried when day after day he had remained unconscious, when there had been no change in his status at all. Although they had been kept busy with the sudden influx of Corrupted, likely attracted to the sheer amount of magic used to help Snape.

"I told you he was going to be fine," Regulus said, pulling Severus' sleeve back down and putting his arms back under the blanket.

It was far too cold now and Severus was particularly vulnerable after his ordeal.

"Yes you did," Hermione muttered.

Regulus looked at her from across Severus' prone form. She had been a bit of an annoyance this past week, but they had reached a point they were more tolerant of each other.

"How did you end up with him anyway?" He asked. "He's not really the baby sitting type."

She scowled at him. Though over the rough patch that was their initial meeting, they still had a tendency to rub each other the wrong way. Whether on purpose or by complete fluke Hermione had no idea. She knew, on her part at least, the words just slipped out before she could really think about it.

"He turned up at the orphanage one day having decided he wanted a pack mule and Corrupted bait, so here I am" she shrugged.

"I don't believe you," he said. "Severus wouldn't be stupid enough to let the bait carry the supplies."

Hermione just laughed lightly. "Damn, you got me..."

Regulus only smirked as he rolled his eyes, knowing she wouldn't be any more forthcoming.

"How long do you think it'll take for him to recover?" Hermione asked, changing the subject and hoping he wouldn't pursue it because Hermione didn't exactly have a cover story.

"I don't know, he's a hard bastard so probably not much longer."

"You knew him from your school days?"

Regulus nodded.

"Were you friends?"

"People didn't really have 'friends' in Slytherin. You had allies, assets and opportunities."

Hermione tilted her head to the side. That didn't sound that appealing actually. She also wanted to ask what Slytherin was, but she was afraid her lack of knowledge might tip him off to something.

"What house were you in?" Regulus asked, eyeing her up.

She was sure her face must have looked as puzzled as she felt. "We moved around a lot, but I guess mostly brick, sometimes wood."

It was certainly a random subject change, and the prat actually had the nerve to look at her like she was the mental one. A bit rich coming from him.

"You're a squib then, or born outside the safe zones," Regulus said, his tone one of dawning understanding.

"...Yeah," she replied, not confirming which one.

What if Snape had already told him things about her or given a cover story. Anything she said could muck that up.

A bell from downstairs suddenly started to ring and Regulus was on his feet and rushing to the curtained window and peeping out for a moment.

"Shit," he hissed quietly. "We've got Death Eaters."

Hermione's eyes widened. What the hell were they supposed to do now? She stared down at Snape, she had to get him out of here, she had to get them both out of here. And Regulus too she supposed, he was a traitor, a deserter. They would surely kill him too if they got their hands on him. In one quick movement she had her bow and quiver shouldered just in case and was on her feet.

"How many?" She asked, the determination in her voice matching the expression on her face as she pulled Snape's covers off him in preparation of moving him.

"Four," he replied. "Don't worry, I have a way of dealing with it. Help me with Severus."

Hermione did as he told her, but not before they had rushed around to hide any evidence of their being here. The pair dragged Severus down the stairs and down towards the cellar.

"What are they doing? Why aren't they coming in?" She whispered after she'd heard nothing to indicate Death Eaters were here.

"They don't know anyone's still here. They have to be cautious for the Corrupted."

Down in the cellar Regulus ducked out from beneath Severus' arm and Hermione nearly lost her balance trying to compensate. Regulus started shifting the wall out. At first, it just looked like rubbish piled high, but he had glued it to the wall to make it look like that as he pulled the wall open. He was very good at disguising entrances it seemed. His armoury had been hidden behind something similar too, though it looked more like a a regular dirty wall.

Regulus returned to Severus' other side and together they dragged him into the newly revealed hole then he quickly sealed them in. It was pitch black now that they were completely hidden. They set Severus down and they both crouched by his unconscious form. The damp smell, and the feel of the ground beneath her hands and feet, this place was dug into the dirt. She looked around, though it was a wasted effort with the thick darkness all around them. Was this room even structurally sound?

_Please don't let it cave in on us._

Was there even a way out of here? It seemed to be just a hole in the wall. She felt a around and yes, there was no escape tunnel. Above them, Hermione could hear booted feet on wood and had to fight back the whimper. She hated the dark, and this situation was far too reminiscent of another.

_Death Eaters boots on hardwood floors...the dark cupboard under the stairs...the sound of her breath as she tried to hold in her harsh gasps...hot tears down her cheeks...the pool of blood spreading beneath the crack at the bottom of the door, her one source of light_. Hermione could feel her breathing becoming erratic, her heart pounding in her chest. _The door opening and light flooding her vision...a dark silhouette...the whisper of a spell in a rich, smooth voice..._ She tried to snap herself back to the present, but her present wasn't much better.

_They'll find us they'll find us they'll find us..._

Darkness always swamped her with these memories and she always found it hard to fight them off, especially without the fear of Corrupted chasing her to distract her. She bit at her lip and tried to resist the urge to rock back and forwards. It was one thing to be down in the dark with Severus as they ran from Corrupted, another entirely to be trapped in a little hole with Death Eaters only few feet away and Severus unconscious.

She never realised how much comfort she drew from his presence in the dark. Her hand reached out, scrambling along the dirt floor until it found Severus' hand and gripped it tightly, hoping everything would be all right and fighting the visions of her past.

_Ugh!_ She was supposed to be stronger than this, but she went to pieces over Death Eater's and darkness. What would Snape say? Something condescending no doubt. Hermione blinked back her tears and tried to force herself to suck it up, to get ready in case there was a fight to come. She would be no good to anyone if she was a wreck. But once she pulled her blade out of her pocket, she lost what little bit of composure she had managed to scramble together when she heard them on the other side of the wall. They were so close. Her grip on Snape's hand tightened and for the first time since it happened, she was relieved the man was unconscious and would never know just how terrified she was. She squeezed her eyes shut, the old 'if I can't see you, you can't see me' coming to mind. However, not a moment later she opened them again. She needed to protect Snape, the way he had protected her so much. How was she supposed to do that with her eyes closed?

After a mediocre search though, the Death Eaters left. They hadn't even been close to thorough. When Regulus opened the wall she stared at him, brows furrowed in confusion.

"That's it?" She asked, hoping he wouldn't pick up on any of the signs of her near break down.

"This isn't the first time they've been out here. They likely sensed the magic used on Severus. That's why I have this place set up the way I do and why I have all those rules about not leaving shit lying around," Regulus told her, his words becoming more of a rebuke than an explanation.

"I thought you were just really anal about cleanliness," she retorted, getting into position to drag Snape back upstairs. "Besides, it's been a week since we did that, why would it take so long for them to come here?"

Regulus shrugged. "Because they're slack? Because of how far the magic spread, they couldn't pin point the source? They're cowards who didn't want to come out into Corrupted infested territory? Who knows how the Death Eaters work now?"

xXx

Severus wasn't sure how long he had been out when he finally awoke with enough lucidity for conversation. He wasn't surprised to find the first thing he saw was Hermione again. She leaned over him, giving him that kind smile of hers.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, her far too cheerful voice grating on his ears like sand paper.

"Better," he replied.

Moving slower than he would like, almost like trying to move through molasses, he lifted his arms and lowered his sleeve to get a look at his arm. He had the vague memory of his first glimpse of it, but he just wanted to be sure. He brushed his fingers over the scarring, it truly was gone.

It took him a moment, but he did finally notice her attire. She was wearing a black coat, a scarf and a wool cap. She had the bow over her and the quiver shouldered, her pack resting beside her.

"Going somewhere?"

"To Cork," she replied simply. "I've seen for myself you're going to be ok now and you've gotten what you wanted, there's no reason for you to come with me any more."

"How did you know the removal was my payment?" He asked, genuinely curious. He had certainly never mentioned it.

"I figured it out," she shrugged. "Considering how you acted about that woman in Liverpool when you checked her arm, and your...desperation to get the mark off when you found out Regulus could do it... Two and two."

"Still, quite the leap of logic" he said. "I'm some what impressed."

She gave him an exaggerated half bow in return.

"However," he continued. "You have failed to consider one detail."

At the word fail, her expression took on something akin to a glower. "And what's that?"

"That the removal was not the extent of my payment. Put your things back and discard your foolish notions of going alone," he snapped. "We will continue on when I am ready and not before."

On the one hand she wanted to snap in indignation at the way he was ordering her about like a wayward child. On the other hand, he was going to come with her and that really did help to cancel out any irritation with him.

"Fine," she replied haughtily as if she had been highly put upon by this delay. "I suppose I can wait for you."

"Where did you get those clothes?" He asked her. They had looked practically new.

"Dumbledore's people packed them for me. Pretty nice right? The clothes I mean, not the people. And obviously you wouldn't know, but it's snowing now. Winter is here and now I know I've definitely hit fifteen."

Her birthday was recently? Although she didn't seem to be that sure without the presence of the snow.

"I remember the snow always came a few months after my birthday, so I use that to gauge my age now," she explained.

"I see. Congratulations then."

"Me and Regulus got drunk to celebrate. I'd never had alcohol before, from what I remember it was awesome. Not so great the next morning but I survived."

Severus wasn't exactly pleased to hear Regulus had been giving alcohol to a child. And he was under the impression the pair could not stand each other.

"Just don't make a habit of it," he told her. "I'm not sure drunk out of your mind or alcoholic will count as 'intact.'"

She poked her tongue at him as she pulled off her cap and unwound her scarf.

"I'm surprised you would still go to Cork," he said. "You have no obligation."

"I sort of do though," she said. "They think I'm the last muggle born. And if tinkering with my magic somehow can help others, stop the amount of people that turn, that benefits everyone. And maybe...maybe there will be a way to cure those recently turned if not everyone. Don't get me wrong, you wizards suck and brought this on yourself, but...well, not all of you are guilty I guess. But I do find the thought of you stupid wizards killing muggles and muggle borns only to turn around and have to live like muggles or end up monsters...amusing. And that your biggest hope is a muggle born."

"Yes," he drawled. "The irony is hilarious."

She let out a laugh before quickly sobering again and meeting his eyes.

"Besides, you must miss your magic, you must want it back."

"Even if I had it back, I would still avoid its usage, I can still be tracked by it."

"But at least you'd be able to use the smaller handy ones, like that summoning one."

"True," he agreed. "It merely surprises me you would care what happens to the people who destroyed yours."

"Yeah, I'm just as surprised as you I think," yet she shrugged it off like it was nothing. "So, hungry? Thirsty? Need to go to the toilet? There are sort of working ones here, it's great."

"Food first," he replied.

He didn't know how they had been managing his bodily functions in his unconscious state, quite frankly he didn't want to know, but he didn't feel the urge to go at all.

"I'll go get you something," she said, quickly getting to her feet.

"Where is Regulus?"

"Patrol. And scavenging."

"Scavenging? He hasn't cleaned this town out yet?"

Hermione shrugged. "He goes out every other day and usually comes back with something. The longer you have to survive, the lower your standards become and suddenly almost everything becomes useful."

Severus nodded, though he had never been in that position. He had always managed to trade for what he needed, the only time things ever became desperate was when it came to food. There was no substitute good scavenging could find for that.

"I went out with him once," she continued. "He's letting me use and keep the bow, and I hit a Corrupted, right through the eye. It was a wicked shot you should have seen it."

"I'm sure it was," he said.

Hermione knew he was only humouring her, but to be honest, the fact he put in the effort to humour her was better than being snapped and snarled at.

Severus tried to sit up, shift himself so he could lean against the wall. He didn't like lying down while others around him hovered over him. It left him with that very unpleasant feeling of vulnerability. Never mind that he was as weak as a kitten right now and whether sitting up or sitting down, there would be no difference if someone really did want to hurt him.

Hermione returned a few minutes later with a steaming chipped bowl of soup and some crackers. Severus really missed bread.

Growing up, it wasn't something he had ever thought he would miss, but once leaving the safe zones it was the unexpected things he came to miss the most. Bread, the sense of security that the multitude of wards around his home offered, hot showers, clean clothes, his mother...

Hermione handed him the bowl and set the small packet of likely stale crackers beside him.

"I'll get you some water," she said.

She had been relieved and elated he had decided to stay with her, even if it was only to collect the rest of his payment. It had been her hope he would try and stop her from leaving, if she had truly been determined she would have just done it while he was asleep.

Fetching his water from Regulus' stores, she brought the cup up to him, taking a seat beside him on the mattress and pulling her book from her pack.

Severus eyed her warily. The girl was invading his personal space. She was on his bloody bed and already so lost in her book she didn't notice his glare. What on earth made her think he would welcome her closeness?

Reading, that was also something that he missed. He still did it when he had the time, but most of his day was filled with travel or trying to survive and at night, having light wasn't a risk he often took.

He opened his mouth to basically tell her to bugger off, but instead, he found himself asking about her bloody book.

"Good book?" What on earth had possessed him? Maybe the lack of a decent read for himself.

She hummed and hawed for a moment before replying. "Yes, but it raises more questions about what happened in the first book. And apparently there's another trilogy before this one. Maybe I should stop reading series..."

"The would probably be for the best."

She read and he ate in silence. He found her presence not as intolerable as most. He supposed, if he wanted to be brutally honest, she was growing on him. He wondered if he should thank her for the care she likely took of him but quickly decided against it. He wasn't abandoning her, that was thanks enough in his opinion.

Regulus turned up a short while later, leaning against the doorway and taking in the little companionable scene.

"About time you woke up," he said, drawing their attention. "Little Miss Never-shuts-up has been getting on my nerves."

"Yeah," Hermione agreed, her tone sickly sweet. "All the help I've been giving him has been making him feel really inferior. Don't worry, Snape will be fine soon and you can go back to your half assed surviving."

He scowled at her without any real heat. The pair obviously didn't know how to be nice to each other but for some inexplicable reason, did like each other to an extent. The 'bickering' was going to get on his nerves if they kept it up. Severus could just see it now.

"Shut up now, I'm trying to eat," Severus warned.

"And there's that bottle of sunshine I ordered," Regulus sighed.

Severus heard Hermione snickering beside him as she pretended to focus on her book. He glared at the both of them who were forcing nonchalance as they pretended not to notice him, Regulus haughtily checking his nails which were surprisingly clean.

"Surely the pair of you have something better to do than bother me," he snarled, his lip curling up into a sneer.

"But nothing as fulfilling," Hermione answered, flashing him an oh so innocent smile before returning to her book.

_Bloody nuisances!_


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Thank you for all the follows, faves and reviews. Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes I missed.

Chapter 8

It took almost a week for Snape to be up and about, but he was doing very well, he had recovered quite nicely. Though he still tired easily, they were intending to head out today. They didn't want to over stay their welcome. Truthfully, they had likely already worn it out but you never really could tell with Regulus. He hadn't exactly been happy to see them the moment they arrived and he might just be snappy and short tempered with them because he was just like that. A bit like Snape in some ways.

Severus took his first step out into the snow, Hermione at his side all bundled up in her winter clothes, her wild curls tumbling out from her hats edge. She had tried to give her hat to him when they were getting ready, claiming she had a scarf and it wasn't very fair. He had only snorted at her attempt and told her to stop being so ridiculous. Severus had his own black coat on, with a few layers underneath it. Unfortunately the cold still seeped in.

The arctic conditions outside did make it more tempting to hole up in Wicklow the entire winter, Regulus' temper be damned. Severus could handle it. But they needed to get to Cork before Albus proclaimed them dead, or that Severus was a traitor. He wouldn't put it past the old man. Though he often claimed to trust Severus, he wasn't so sure. He always withheld information from him that would have been useful, as if he feared Severus would give it to the Dark Lord. And Severus had always come in second to his bloody Gryffindors.

They bid goodbye to Regulus, unfortunately he hadn't been willing to part with as much supplies as they would have liked, reminding them just how difficult it was to hunt in winter and that removing Severus' mark was enough to make them even. He did however offer to escort them to the towns edge, making it easier to bypass his traps and adding an extra hand for any Corrupted they ran into.

The trip though was quiet and uneventful and the goodbyes from Regulus were distant, more a warning not to come back and interrupt his little slice of paradise. But Hermione had given him a hug regardless and he had scowled at Severus for it, though Severus did notice he hardly hesitated in returning the embrace. Loneliness would do strange things to a person.

They followed the snow covered road south. Maybe the freezing cold winter would help thin out the Corrupted.

"So how does it feel to be free?" Hermione asked, blowing into her hands and rubbing them together.

"I am not entirely free," he replied. "No wizard is, nor will they ever be until the Dark Lord is dead and our magic is no longer hindered by our disease."

Hermione gave him a flat look. "Wow... Why can't you just admit when some thing's good? Enjoy it, good things can't happen to you that much. Good things don't happen much to anyone."

He glared at her, and when he spoke his voice was low and tight with restrained anger. Hermione instantly knew she had gone too far but had no idea why.

"You are absolutely correct, good things don't happen to me often. So I will not allow myself to believe this is a permanent thing. When something good does happen, it never lasts. It is likely the Dark Lord will catch up with me eventually and re-brand me. I will live with it and pray that when the Dark Lord finds me, I will be dead before he can take me."

Hermione just nodded sadly, not sure what else to do and she feared saying anything else might further provoke him. That was kind of sad actually. Even in her life there had been some good moments, small as they were and she clung to them. Surely he had something like that in his own life. Maybe he just didn't know how to look for them.

The rest of the day was carried out in near silence, the only time either one of them spoke was when it was absolutely necessary.

xXx

"Look, Snape? I'm sorry about what I said yesterday."

He gave her a side long glance but didn't slow his steps through the snow. They had finished their meagre breakfast and had been walking for the past half hour already. The exercise was at least helping to keep the cold at bay.

"Sort of," she continued, causing his brow to furrow. What kind of half assed apology was this? "I don't think you should be so negative all the time. Life, fate, destiny, the universe, whatever, it's shit on all of us. Being so negative about it doesn't help things."

He froze, peering down at her. "Did you...just try to give me a pep talk?"

There was some measure of incredulity, amusement and irritation in his voice. She was getting better at picking up the inflections in his tone. The amusement she picked up on was definitely a step in the right direction.

"A small one I guess," she offered a small smile. "And in my expert opinion someone should have given you one years ago."

"I am unsure whether to slap you or strangle you for your cheek," he muttered, continuing his pace.

Hermione appeared to give it some serious thought. "That is a tough choice, I see your dilemma." She was just happy things were already going back to normal and they were getting over the awkwardness of yesterday. "Let me help you. You do neither and just bask in the glow of my positivity. Then you won't have to worry about being positive, I can be enough for both of us."

"You severely underestimate the depths of my negativity," he drawled.

"I'll just have to work on it with more pep talks."

"Merlin forbid..."

"Or, smile for me and I won't."

"Strangle, definitely strangle, it has a bit more permanency to it."

Hermione only laughed. "I was just joking. I think smiling might be dangerous for you anyway, might crack your face. Then where would we be?"

They both suddenly froze and crouched low at a sound in the woods, halting conversation. It definitely didn't belong and it was growing increasingly louder. With the usual silence all around them it was difficult to tell where the sound was coming from, it seemed to carry and come from all around them. Hermione lifted her bow off from around her and drew an arrow just in case, Severus did the same with his pistol though he was hoping to avoid using it.

A scream tore through the raucous and a woman burst out of the tree line, a horde of Corrupted on her heels. Hermione quickly raised her bow but Severus stopped her.

"No," he whispered.

"Wh-"

"She is dead anyway, we will not die along with her," he told her, his tone completely dead. "We need to move before they notice us and before her screaming attracts more."

"But-"

"I said no Hermione," he growled lowly as he dragged her off the road and into the forestry, the opposite side of where the other woman had come from.

The woman had been bleeding profusely and there were more Corrupted than they could have handled but it felt wrong to leave her to die, to not even raise a finger to help her.

"Shouldn't we at least...put her out of her misery? They'll tear her apart."

"And while they are busy with her," he replied as if he were talking to someone with a mental deficiency. "We can make our escape."

There was no denying his logic was sound, but it was so heartless. Besides, shouldn't they have rescued her to question her? Where had she come from? Was there another settlement near by? Wasn't Snape the least bit curious about any of that? And it was just...awful. How could he leave her like that? If Hermione were in that position, she would hope someone would help her. Maybe she could-

His hand gripped her arm harder as if he had gotten wind of her thoughts. He gave her a warning look before turning ahead, his face set in grim determination. Hermione stumbled as the snow deepened.

"Snape!" She hissed it, not wanting to be too loud. "Unless you're going to carry me on your back, slow the hell down and let me go this instant. My legs aren't as long as yours."

He was a very tall guy and she was only really noticing it now. He stared down at her and she could tell he was truly giving some consideration to just carrying her, no doubt preferring to lug her over his shoulder rather than nicely carry her on his back.

"Very well," he agreed, letting her go. "But try to walk faster."

She nodded and they continued on, the screams of that woman eventually died. Well, more like they were cut off.

"Do you think there was enough left of her to become one of them?" She asked softly, not sure she had concealed her guilt well enough from him.

Severus wasn't sure what to say to make her feel better about what they had done. It had been necessary, but not everyone understood 'necessity' in a situation like that. And he couldn't help but wonder why she would ask such a morbid question. She was usually rather cheerful, yet very occasionally she would spit out something like that. He supposed even she couldn't be positive all the time.

"I hope not," he replied. "That would only put one more enemy at our back."

"...Right."

They trudged on, pausing at every sound, keeping an eye on their surroundings and their weapons out just to be safe.

xXx

They paused, watching the small town in the distance for any sign of movement. It was blanketed in snow and from this far away it actually looked quite idyllic. It reminded Severus of sitting in the parlour of his grandparents manor, curled up in front of the fire with a good book during the colder winter days.

He glanced down at Hermione and wondered for a brief second if she had ever experienced a comfort like that in her life. It wasn't difficult to push aside though. What would be the point in asking?

Hermione let out a heavy sigh. "I will hunt you a big meaty stag if we can just go _around_ this stupid town."

Severus let out a low chuckle, the thought of hunting a particular stag coming to mind. Unfortunately James Potter would not be in Ireland, so the chance of Hermione accidentally killing him was far out of the realm of possibility. _A Shame_...

"Around it is," he agreed.

"Fantastic!" She mumbled it triumphantly and started the march with the intention of putting as wide a berth as possible between them and the town.

They still moved quietly and cautiously though. And even though they kept to the outskirts, they still came across the occasional house. Like most houses, they were all boarded up, some with warnings painted or sprayed on the walls to try and ward off looters and wizards. But there were no signs of anyone still being there, Corrupted or other. Not until they came across a hideous mustard yellow two storey home. From their vantage point behind the fence they could see a group of Corrupted trying to get into it. The downstairs windows and doors were all boarded up, the upstairs windows smashed out. But Corrupted weren't very good at climbing, and these ones were piling on top of each other like those ones they had run into back in England. Odd though, why would the Corrupted by so desper-

"There are people in there aren't there?" Hermione asked, though her tone suggested it wasn't really a question.

"Likely," he whispered in reply. "Stay behind the fence and move very quietly."

She did as she was told, both pausing when they heard the sound of smashing glass and that unmistakeable roar of a fast burning fire. Severus peered through the crack in between the boards of the fence. Hermione watched his brow furrow, deeper than usual, and his eyes closed. He let his head lightly thunk against the wood.

"I need to get into that house," he said and Hermione was able to pick up the small trace of resignation in his tone.

"Wow, there's an idea that just screams 'and there were no survivors.' What the hell Snape?"

"I know those people in there," he told her.

She could easily see the concern on his face, the steely determination. He wasn't even trying to hide it. The lecture she was gearing up for about the hypocrisy of leaving that woman to die only to turn around and risk themselves for these people completely died on her tongue.

Severus was expecting a fight from her when he took in her expression, but after a moment it softened and she nodded.

"Ok," she said. "What do we do?"

Her easy acquiescence stunned him a moment, so did the small sliver of warmth that shot through his chest. 'What do _we_ do?' She was going to help him, he hadn't even needed to ask. She was really growing on him.

They peered through the gaps in the fence. Obviously they wouldn't be getting in through the bottom, the top windows were a possibility though. But they couldn't climb, too many Corrupted around and there was nothing to use to climb. He was reluctant to use magic now more than ever. The Dark Lord would be scanning for him. It had been risky enough using the accio charm when they first got here.

He looked at Hermione. Would they be able to trace her? She had no wand, had never had any contact with the wizarding world and she had not used her magic frequently. Any bursts of uncontrolled magic she may have had over the years, had they ever brought Death Eaters to her? The small charms he had been teaching her hadn't.

"When you have used your magic, uncontrolled or not, have Death Eaters ever come for you?" He asked.

"The first time. But every time after that, Theon always made us move, said it was too dangerous so I don't know if they ever came or not."

Well that wasn't helpful in the least.

"So we need to get in through an upstairs window," she said in that tone that meant she was more talking to herself than anyone else. He had become familiar with it when she went into planning mode, whether designing a trap to catch their next meal or finding ways around obstacles. "Too many Corrupted to climb from bottom up. No conveniently placed trellis or better yet, a ladder..."

He could practically see the gears in her head whirring.

"Ok...ok...I think I got it. See that little porch?"

Severus nodded.

"You can climb its fence and jump to reach its roof, then you can get into one of the windows."

As far as plans went, it wasn't the most intricate. And they still had the problem of getting around the Corrupted.

"Wait here," she said.

"What are you doing?"

"Trust me," she grinned. "Never let you down before have I?"

He supposed not, not since he had started actually considering her a contributing member of their duo at least.

"Just...be careful," he mumbled. "You die and I don't get my reward."

She rolled her eyes but the grin widened. "Go on, you can say it, you'll be sad if I die."

He cast her a withering look. Sad might be stretching it, but he supposed he would feel something other than the relief that came with the easing of a burden.

"As soon as it's clear, get into that house," she told him.

Now he really didn't like where this was going, but she vanished around the corner of the fence before he could do anything about it. A few moments later he saw her climbing onto the top of the busted van parked in the driveway. She nocked an arrow and loosed it, hitting one of the Corrupted in the head. It was a bloody good shot. The creature went down instantly. She was able to get off another couple of shots before they finally noticed her. Their shrieks alerted the others and Hermione leaped down from the van and sprinted off, the pack on her heels.

Severus watched, wide eyed. Merlin he had thought the girl was smarter than that. If she bloody survived he was going to kill her himself while delivering a scathing lecture on her stupidity and congratulate her on destroying the tiny shred of faith he had in her.

He pushed aside his concern - _perhaps the stupid wretch deserved to be torn apart by those creatures _- and turned back to the house. He could get in there now, see how many were in there then enlist their help to save Hermione. _Stupid foolish girl!_

He climbed over the fence and up into the house, coming face to face with his estranged Godson. Draco was holding his wand up at Severus, his hand trembling, his face twisted with fear which abruptly transformed into equal parts surprise and confusion.

"Uncle Severus? Is that you?"

"It is. What are you doing outside the safe zone?"

"It's not so safe any more," he replied, his voice sombre.

"Severus?"

Both males turned towards the woman's voice where Narcissa stood, her wand drawn but not at the ready.

"If you plan to live out here undetected, you might want to lose the habit of reaching for your wands," he told them. "Why are you out here? Where is Lucius?"

A groan in the next room drew his attention and he stalked towards it before Narcissa could even answer him. He found Lucius unconscious, or near it, groaning in agony atop a dirty mattress with threadbare filthy blankets over him. Severus crouched beside him, lifting his sleeve and finding the Dark Mark inflamed, twisting and writhing. He was being summoned, well, more like punished for his desertion.

Never did he think he would see the day the Malfoy's would turn their back on the cause. Lucius was a fervent believer in the dogma, though he loathed the idea of actually having to get his hands dirty. But he had always done what he must to ensure the life he believed his family deserved. This was a drastic change, on multiple levels.

"So you've deserted then," he said.

Narcissa nodded, looking so out of place to his memories of the woman. She was always so cold, calm and immaculately attired. Right now, the Malfoy's were grubby and dishevelled, though their clothes were obviously of the highest quality. It probably hadn't been long since they'd left London, a few days, a week at most perhaps. How had they gotten here of all places?

He shoved all questions aside for now, his immediate concern was Hermione.

"How did you get rid of all the Corrupted?" Narcissa asked as she followed Severus back towards the window he had come in from.

"I didn't, my...partner did. And I will need your help to ensure she makes it here safely."

Before he could even take hold of the window ledge, Hermione stumbled in and grinned at him - _fucking grinned_ at him! Her breathing was laboured from her exertion but she didn't appear to be injured. He was very nearly crushed by the weight of his relief, which allowed his swelling rage to break through. He grabbed her arms and slammed her into the wall.

"What the fuck did you think you were doing!?" He hissed, ever mindful of making too much noise and attracting the Corrupted.

She lost all humour in an instant. "What needed to be done. I cleared the way."

"You could have been killed."

"Give me some credit, I'm not stupid," she snapped.

"Your actions prove otherwise."

She shrugged him off. "No, because here I am completely unharmed. All this proves is you give me way too little credit. I have spent my whole life surviving, I do know how to take care of myself."

True, she had never actually fought Corrupted or bandits before, but she did have experience in avoiding them and her little adventure with Snape had already taught her a lot about their behaviours and what to expect.

"I am not doubting your competency, merely your intelligence."

Her jaw actually dropped. "How is that better!? How about a 'thanks Hermione for clearing the path so I could help out my friends'?"

Much of her will power was going towards keeping her voice low. She had just shaken all those Corrupted, no way in hell did she want them coming back.

"God you're such an ass!" She hissed, resisting the urge to slap him. He would likely slap her back. He had already punched her once. "And you're rude. Who are these people?"

No tact whatsoever in that subject change. Well he wasn't going to let her get away with insulting him.

"That's not important right now. How-"

"Severus." Narcissa's tone was warning. Their voices were beginning to rise.

Severus clenched his jaw and let out a hissing breath from between gritted teeth. Ok, maybe she would get away with insulting him. They needed to change the subject before they started yelling and magic started flaring. It had been a very long time since he had been this angry.

"How did you lose the Corrupted?" He asked, her wary surprise not as satisfying as her anger or tears of remorse would have been.

"Lead them on a chase and lost them in the woods," she replied. "Wasn't that hard. They're shite trackers even with my foot prints in the snow. So who are they?"

Hermione eyed the woman first, beneath the grime it was easy to see she was a very beautiful woman. Sometimes it was easy to forget that while she and Theon fought and scraped just to get by, there were whole communities who's lives were about more than just surviving. Her eyes drifted to the boy, as pretty as his mother. Her age too. Hermione had never met anyone her age before.

"Hermione Granger, Narcissa and Draco Malfoy," Severus muttered begrudgingly.

Severus made his way back to Lucius. Solving his problem would take his mind from the murderous desires he was now harbouring for his little muggle born ward.

Hermione followed on his heels, not wanting to be left alone in that room with a couple of strangers. At least this lot hadn't held her at gun point like Severus' last friend had. She considered that a step up.

"Who's this guy?" Hermione asked as she watched him crouch beside the blonde man.

"Lucius Malfoy," he replied, removing his pack and handing it to her. "I need you to find a pain potion and a sleeping draught," he ordered.

She nodded and dropped to her knees. They had spent some of their nights around the fire with him teaching her a few things about potions, mainly how to identify what he carried if there was ever an emergency.

"What's wrong with him?" She asked.

"The Dark Lord."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

They all gathered in the next room so as not to disturb Lucius, his struggle with the pain had finally died down and the room had been enveloped in a heavy silence since Severus had finished administering the potions.

Hermione wasn't particularly fond of silence. She knew its importance at certain times, but mostly it just served to remind of the lack of life around her. Winter was her least favourite season because of how quiet and muted everything became.

"So...," she said, fishing for something to say. "Dark Lord seems to be losing all his followers..." They all looked at her, their expressions tipping her off to just how loathe they were to discuss anything Dark Lord related. "I'm just going to...go hunt up some dinner."

She pulled herself to her feet but Severus just clicked his fingers and pointed to the floor, silently telling her to take her seat.

"I'll search downstairs for anything useful," she offered instead, not wanting to be in this room with these people. She got the vibe they wanted to talk to Severus privately. And that he would like to speak with them as well. Best to get out of the way so they could have their little chat. Besides, she got the distinct impression Snape was still angry with her about that whole...thing before. What the hell was his problem anyway? She turned out fine, she knew what she was doing.

She found the kitchen, but like most places it had been cleaned out of food. Pots, utensils, things like that still seemed to be there, knives were missing however. Still, she searched every draw, every cupboard and every place people had taken to hiding things. In ovens and other appliances, under loose floor boards, hidden holes in cupboards, the list went on.

While she was on her hands and knees knocking at the floor and looking for discrepancies, that Draco boy entered the room. He stared down at her curiously, arms folded across his chest.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Sometimes people hide things, and they don't have time to clean out their stashes before they have to leave. Or sometimes they're killed and it just goes untouched." She rose to her feet, dusting off her hands. "Vibe upstairs making you uncomfortable too?"

"No."

She shot him a one sided grin. "Snape tell you to piss off?"

"He wasn't as crass as you."

"Weird, that man can cuss like a sailor."

Not that she knew what a sailor cussed like, it was just an expression she had read a few times in books. She had come to the understanding that sailors were powerful cussers.

"How do you know him anyway?" She asked, continuing her search of the kitchen.

"I don't see how it's any of your business."

"Rude, but fine," she shrugged it off.

It seemed to be a common attitude among people these days, no one trusted anyone with any thing, especially information.

"How do you know him?" The boy asked.

"Hardly fair I answer your question when you won't answer mine," she shrugged.

The blonde boy just continued to glower at her as she went about her work.

xXx

"He was going to mark Draco."

Severus nodded, he could understand why this would prompt Narcissa to take her son and flee, but not Lucius. By all rights, Severus would have thought he'd be proud of his son being inducted so early.

"The Dark Lord grows more insane every day," Narcissa told him. "More and more of his followers are deserting. Most he manages to hunt down and find." Severus could guess what happened to those who were found. "He is recruiting at a younger and younger age these days."

Severus wondered who the targets were now that muggles and muggle borns were all dead. Squibs most likely, maybe he had even moved on to half bloods now. Half breeds too had always been a favoured target and certain magical creatures, mainly those that didn't fall in line.

"I'd have thought Lucius would have been pleased with his sons marking," Severus said.

Narcissa's eyes narrowed in irritation. "Perhaps that might have been true once upon a time. But it certainly isn't the case any more. As soon as he got wind of the Dark Lord's intentions he packed us up and we fled."

Severus let it drop. The Malfoys had been the closest thing to friends he'd had at one point. He had no desire to burn bridges with them right now. They could be useful.

"How long has Lucius been like this?" He asked instead.

"Six days. The Dark Lord has barely given him a moments peace."

"Did you imagine he would?"

Narcissa shook her head. "I just never knew it could be this painful. Lucius always kept such things to himself. How long did it take for the Dark Lord to leave you alone?"

"Weeks. Most of that time I was unconscious. But he would periodically torment me from time to time. He certainly never forgets. But if he is getting as mad and unpredictable as you say, he could very well torture Lucius into madness himself."

"How do we stop it?"

Severus debated it within himself for a moment. It was highly unlikely they were out here with the intention of finding other deserters like Severus and dragging them back to the Dark Lord. But he didn't want to just give away the secret to removing the Dark Mark on the off chance Lucius was still working for the Dark Lord, or would somehow use it to get back into the Dark Lord's favour. But then, Lucius for all his self centred and narcissistic tendencies, had been as devoted to his family as any other half way decent patriarch was. If he didn't think it a good idea for his son to be part of the Death Eaters, he would go to the ends of the earth to try and prevent that.

Severus would keep the fact the mark could be removed to himself. He didn't know how to do it, his memory of it had more than a few blanks. He would have to speak to Hermione to know if it was even feasible. There was no point in getting Narcissa's hopes up.

"I don't know."

He made his way downstairs to find Hermione.

"Who is that girl to you Severus?" Narcissa asked as she followed him down. "As far as I recall, you've never willingly opted to spend time with people."

"She is none of your concern, nor is my involvement with her,"

Narcissa didn't press. Though Severus may have come to the decision to help them and possibly let them in on the secret of the removal, he didn't trust them with the knowledge of Hermione's muggle born status.

Downstairs they found the younger pair sitting closely side by side on the bench sharing from Hermione's water bottle. A flash of irritation shot through him, though he was unsure at what exactly. Perhaps because Hermione wasn't searching for supplies as she was supposed to be.

"Find anything?" He barked the question at her.

She grinned at him, completely unperturbed by the harshness of his tone and showed him a cricket bat that had scissor blades and nails sticking out of it to make it more lethal.

"Looks like someone got creative," she said.

Severus took it from her, testing the weight of it. It could definitely do some damage. It's durability was questionable though. Still, it was something.

"I need to speak with you," he told her, gesturing for her to follow him. He lead her through the house into the room furthest from the Malfoy's. Both set to searching while they were here.

"Do you remember much about the spell Regulus performed to remove my mark?"

She froze, staring at him, her face etched with her concern. How could she forget? She had been utterly terrified and that terror had burned every second of those hours into her mind with stunning vividity.

"Yeah, I remember," she solemnly replied. "If you're planning on doing it to that guy upstairs, you can't."

"Why?" He asked, stopping what he was doing to watch her intently.

"The magic released in that..." She shook her head. "It was massive. Every Corrupted within a few miles of us felt it and made their way to us. We were killing and picking Corrupted out of the barbed wire for days afterwards. It was like Wicklow was infested all over again, so Regulus said. I think he might have been exaggerating though, we've seen some pretty infested places. Death Eaters too must have felt it, because they turned up to search the place. We can't do it here, we wouldn't be able to handle the aftermath."

Severus hadn't realised so much had happened in the time he had been unconscious. Neither Hermione nor Regulus had said a thing about it. Hermione had mentioned they had been patrolling but he had assumed it was merely routine.

"If you want to do it, best place would be Wicklow. Although it'll probably make the Death Eaters suspicious having to come out there again."

Severus nodded, acknowledging the very valid points she made. There would be no releasing Lucius from the mark until they had plans in place to escape the repercussions. And he couldn't leave the Malfoy's like this and continue to Cork. Narcissa and Draco would be utterly lost. It was a surprise they had lasted as long as they had.

That night, after a thorough search of the house, they holed up in the same room as Lucius and ate cold left overs from the night before. As for warmth, they didn't have a lot of blankets, just the two of them and Lucius had the others. Narcissa had crawled under the blankets with him. Hermione, in a rather ridiculous offer of generosity in Severus' opinion, had given her warming charmed blanket to Draco. Then she had turned big pleading eyes on Severus when she tried to sneak under his blanket. Unfortunately, he had let her in. Logically speaking, it was the practical thing to do, the shared warmth was better for them. But bloody hell, even if it wasn't the logical thing to do, he still wouldn't have had the heart to let her freeze. Stupid girl.

xXx

Severus awoke the next morning to find Draco and Hermione sitting in the corner deeply immersed in a game of cards. How long had they been up? And where had they got those cards?

He sat up, drawing the attention of the teens and receiving a beaming smile from Hermione.

"Morning," she greeted, keeping her tone low as Narcissa and Lucius were still asleep.

"You're up early," he noted. Usually he had to pry her from her blanket and practically drag her along behind him for the first half hour or so of their trek.

She shook her head. "You slept late."

He glanced towards the window and sure enough, it was later in the day than he usually woke. Probably because he was still recovering from the spell.

"So what's the plan for today?" She asked.

Severus ignored her question and got up to answer natures call instead. He had lain awake for much of the night pondering that very question. Where was he to go from here? They could carry Lucius, or drag him on some kind of sled at the very least. But out there, he was a liability. They could try and drag him back to Wicklow, but Regulus had been quite explicit in his desire to never see them again. While Severus wouldn't mind imposing upon his 'hospitality' again, Regulus wouldn't be receptive until more time had passed. Or until Severus could trade something of worth to him. Right now his only asset was the muggle born, and even then she would only be of worth to a select few parties. Besides, he had no intention of bartering her off, not even for the Malfoy's.

Severus returned to the room and looked at the pair.

"We are going to make this place safer and warmer," he said. "We could be here for some time."

Hermione nodded, she didn't mind so much she supposed. She had a friend now, this Draco boy. They had been playing cards and talking quietly amongst themselves for the past couple of hours. He didn't seem to know any card games. Well, he knew ones she had never heard of and described decks of cards that sounded ridiculous. Probably a wizard thing. She had taught him the basics, Go Fish, Last Card, Memory... Games her parents had taught her, which she had played again with Theon. He had learned from some of the squibs he had stayed with. Cards were a good way to pass the time on those days it was too dangerous to go out, snow too heavy or Corrupted around.

"What do you want us to do?"

"The upstairs windows, board them up. Leave the one we climbed in through free but find a tarp or something we can cover it up with at night."

Hermione nodded. "But what about the sound boarding up the windows will make?"

"When you find the tools you need, wait for me before you start." Severus set his gaze on Draco. "I trust you remember your Potions lessons."

Draco nodded.

"We are going to go out and see what we can find. I am going to need more pain relief for your father."

"Can we switch jobs?" Hermione asked. "I want to learn about herbs and potions."

"No, I don't have time to teach you, I'm not your bloody Professor. I'm taking Draco because he already knows what he's doing. Once you have gathered your materials you can keep watch."

"Fine," she huffed.

Severus would have to use the more common ingredients, it wouldn't be very potent but it would do in a pinch. And Draco knew what he was looking for, Hermione wouldn't have a clue.

xXx

Severus and Draco stalked through the snow, trying to find what they could but pickings were slim and their search had taken them a good mile or so from the house.

The man had not seen Draco since he was a child and he was not surprised to see how sombre the boy had grown to be. Living under the Dark Lord's thumb could not have been easy on him. From an early age Severus could already see the boy would not take to the Death Eater lifestyle. It was probably better for them that they had escaped when they did.

Although, they probably should have planned things better. Severus hadn't seen many supplies of their own when they had been in the house.

"I don't think we're going to find enough to make even one potion," Draco muttered dejectedly.

"I have some things in my pack, we should be able to get a couple at least." He watched the boy nod absently as he scanned their surroundings intently. "We will get your father through this."

Another nod but Severus could see through his thin façade, he was much more worried than he was trying to let on and he could see the guilt eating at him. He felt he should comfort the boy, offer a more tangible reassurance, but he didn't have any. But Lucius was strong, he should be able to withstand an impressive amount of torture before succumbing to madness or death. The Dark Lord would hopefully move on to other things. Of course, Severus wasn't hinging any plan on it. They could perhaps create some kind of distraction to take the Dark Lord's mind off of Lucius. But it would have to be a last resort because right now he couldn't think of anything that didn't involve putting them at higher risk.

They continued their search for anything useful in silence for awhile, until Draco broke it.

"Why did you leave?" He asked.

"Because I was no longer loyal to the Dark Lord," he replied.

"Why?"

Severus scowled at him. That was none of his business. "Focus on our task."

"Is that girl your daughter?"

"No."

Draco contemplated the older man a moment. Why would he just up and turn against the Dark Lord? His father did it for Draco, what motivation did Severus have?

"Why is she with you?"

"Did I not just tell you to focus on our task?"

Draco sighed but said nothing more. They gathered what they could and made their way back to the house.

When they reached it, it took a few moments but he finally caught a flash of Hermione and knew she was keeping an eye on the perimeter of the house. Reliable that one. When she wasn't being completely irresponsible and endangering her life.

They climbed up and went inside to find Hermione had amassed some interesting things to help make the house defensible and some odds and ends that could be useful. Some of this stuff could not have been found in the house. An axe, though quite rusted, planks of wood, some in better condition than others, rope, tape, a few rusty nails, a brick he assumed she would use as a hammer. The list of odds and ends went on. He gave her a suspicious look.

"You left the house," he accused.

"I'm sorry, you didn't say not to."

Not much of an apology, and she knew damn well he wouldn't have allowed her to leave on her own.

"No, it's my fault," he drawled sarcastically. "I wasn't _ridiculously_ clear. Draco, take the herbs down to the kitchen and prepare them as best you can."

Draco nodded and Severus gestured for Hermione to follow him. They headed into one of the bedrooms furthest from Lucius and Narcissa.

"I'm going to teach you a silencing spell, it will mask the sound of your work here but I need you to be discrete. The Malfoy's cannot know you have magic, if they get close enough to feel it, they will know what you are."

"You don't trust them?" She asked. "I thought they were your friends."

For the kind of world she lived in, she was childishly naive.

"They are. But I don't trust anyone."

"You trusted Regulus," she pointed out.

"I trust him to a certain extent. The only reason I let him perform such a spell on me was because the benefits out weighed the negatives."

"But one of the negatives was he could kill you. You must have trusted him not to," she countered.

"Not necessarily, I just felt the removal was worth the risk."

She pursed her lips and gave him an irritated look. Well didn't he have an answer for everything?

"Maybe you shouldn't play so fast and loose with your life," she snapped, the horror of that day coming back again. How could he be so flippant about it?

"When you've lived with the mark, then you can decide how far is too far to have it removed," he snarled, his voice hard and she knew she had pushed it too far again.

"...So silencing spells..." She said, not so subtly changing the subject.

Severus began her instruction. He had already thought it over. She had used the accio charm, and a low level levitation spell without bringing Death Eater's to them, they likely couldn't track her as she was wandless and they had no sample of her magical signature. He wouldn't risk showing her the spell himself now though, not as he had the other ones. He wouldn't take a stupid risk like that again. They did have a sample of his magic and he had renewed their interest in him. He would have to explain it to her and hope that instruction would be enough.

Because if it wasn't, they would have to go without securing the upstairs. They would have to go without securing a lot of areas. And that did not sit well with him.

xXx

A/N: Not a whole lot going on this chapter sorry. But thank you for reading. It'll pick up a bit more in chapter 11.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

It had been a few days since they had holed up in the home with the Malfoy's and they had made it some what more secure and habitable. Hermione had been spending a lot of time with Draco, trading information, playing cards or other games they could come up with. She was teaching him how to shoot her bow and he was teaching her about the herbs he had collected with Severus and some of their properties and uses.

Lucius Malfoy had had a few moments of lucidity when the pain eased up but it was never long before it set in again with a fierceness he hadn't known before. His wife seemed mostly composed through it all but her worry was evident. Draco too would get quite subdued at times. Hermione tried to keep his mind off it or cheer him up when she could but sometimes he wasn't very receptive.

She didn't see much of Severus though. Well, she _saw_ him but they didn't really speak. He was always busy either tending to Lucius, sequestered away with Narcissa while they discussed what ever it was they discussed, or he was out harvesting more herbs for Lucius' potions. Hermione kept watch when he was out and if she saw a rabbit or squirrel near the house she would shoot it for food. Unfortunately that was far too rare. Their rations were running low though, they were going to have to actually start making hunting trips soon or they would really be in trouble. Hermione had tried to bring it up to Severus, opting to go alone since he seemed to be so busy these days but he had refused to even let her finish the sentence. She still slept with him every night though, it was just too cold and there were talks of having them all pile together under what few blankets they had as the temperature continued to plummet.

"Hey Hermione."

She glanced up at Draco from her seat on the windowsill.

"Hey," she greeted. He took a seat on the sill opposite her and she gave him a small smile. "How's your dad doing today?"

"The same."

"Well, at least it's not worse," she offered weakly.

She shifted awkwardly and winced as it exacerbated the cramps in her stomach. It had been a while since she'd had a decent meal, although these didn't exactly feel like her usual hunger pains.

"What's wrong with you?" Draco asked, having caught her pained grimace.

"Hungry I think," she replied.

"Hungry... Until we left home, I don't think I'd ever actually felt hunger before. Not like this anyway."

Hermione gave a slight smile. It must have been nice, to never wonder where your next meal would come from, to know it would be there when you felt like it and to be able to consume enough to actually fill you up.

"Our house elves were the best cooks. They'd make this dessert, these little chocolate cream cakes, the base was made out of these nuts and chocolate and I think crumbled biscuits. I have no idea what the cream was made of, but it was chocolate and like this thick," he said, holding up his thumb and index a couple of inches apart. "It had chocolate syrup on top and bits of walnut. I miss those."

"What are house elves?" She asked.

"You know, servants," he shrugged. "Sort of, we don't have to pay them or anything and they're not human."

"So they're an enslaved race," she said, shooting him a disapproving look.

"No, they like it," he protested.

"They like being slaves..." Now her look was just plain skeptical.

Movement in her periphery caught her attention and she let the slavery topic drop.

"Here comes Severus," she muttered.

He was tramping his way through the snow at a quick pace, his black coat really standing out against the stark white of the snow. Both teens slid off the sill as Severus climbed in. This was the only way in and out. In a way it was the safest option to only have one entrance/exit, in other ways not so much.

"How was it out there?" She asked.

"Quiet," he replied. "I spotted a buck in the woods though. Gather your things, we're going hunting. Draco, you're on watch. Remember, stay hidden. None of this sitting on the window sill for all to see."

They both shrunk away from the glare he turned on them.

"Yes uncle Severus," he replied, appropriately chastised.

"I'm sorry," Hermione muttered. "I'll do better next time."

She pulled on her woolly hat, having already been wearing her coat, scarf and gloves. Severus left what he gathered with Draco to put down in the kitchen and then he and Hermione climbed outside and down. The pair headed into the woods to track that buck. Both knew the importance of silence while tracking prey so neither spoke unless they absolutely had to and even then it was only in a whisper.

Severus knew she could likely do this on her own but he just didn't like the idea of her out there alone, not with Corrupted, bandits and Death Eaters.

He lead her out to where he had seen the buck and from there it wasn't difficult to pick up its tracks. If they could get this animal, they could make it stretch a long way.

It took a couple of hours to catch up with it at their pace and the snow didn't help matters. But they managed. Hermione was the first to spot it in the middle of a glade, trying to graze, nudging at the snow with his nose, but there wasn't much to be found. Hermione slowly and quietly nocked an arrow and took aim, taking a moment to set her sight properly before letting the arrow fly. It struck the beast in the throat and it immediately bounded off. Hermione followed at a run. As well as the animals tracks, there was now a blood trail to follow.

Despite his injury, the buck had managed to cover quite a bit of distance before succumbing to it. They found him keeled over around the rocky outcropping they had managed to climb over. It was breathing, barely. Hermione always felt bad when a target was still alive like this. It was easier to deal with when it was dead before she reached it. She drew her blade and ended its suffering quickly.

Severus watched her, he had seen her deal with hares and pheasants, clean and gut fish, but she didn't seem as at ease with this beast. She appeared to show remorse for killing this creature, the way she ran a comforting hand over its head and down its neck whispering soothing noises before ending its life. He even saw a flash of sadness in her eyes as she did it. Sometimes it was easy to forget she wasn't as hardened as most. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

"I don't want to skin him here," she said quietly.

"The shed by the house should suffice."

"How are we going to get it there?"

It was far too heavy to carry, it would take them a while to get back. And to drag it would leave a trail right to where they were going. But using magic to levitate it for such a long time risked drawing Corrupted to their position if there were any in the vicinity.

"I'm going to drag it," he said, knowing they had little choice. "You follow behind and try to cover our tracks as best you can."

She nodded and did as she was told. It wasn't great, but it shouldn't draw notice from Death Eaters flying high enough overhead. Bandits would likely find it but they tended to stick to roads and towns.

"Maybe next time we come out, we should bring a shovel or a broom or something," she suggested.

"You keep that in mind then,"

By the time they got back to the house, night was beginning to fall. It had taken them hours to track, kill and drag the buck home. At times, Hermione had resorted to levitation when Severus looked like he was tiring or when their path took them up hill. They took the buck into the shed, the windows had already been covered over so no light could escape and Severus lit the lamp so Hermione could get to work. He would check on the others and then rejoin her, there were parts of the buck that could be harvested for ingredients. Antlers and hooves mainly, but some of its organs too if they were removed correctly. He would need a stasis charm to preserve them, he would have to teach Hermione how.

She was slowly building up a stockpile of low level benign spells. And she took to them like a duck to water. She was a natural, even without a wand. She would have done well in Hogwarts had she been allowed to attend.

In the house he found Draco keeping a vigilant watch on the place. Narcissa was downstairs heating up the left over stew made with a hare Hermione had shot yesterday. She was adamant Death Eaters had a much more difficult time tracking wandless magic, especially if they were low level spells. She had her hands on either side of the pot and was heating the metal.

"Were you successful?" She asked.

"Yes, we should be fine for a few days."

"That's good to hear."

"How has Lucius been faring?"

"Good today," she replied. "I think the Dark Lord might be losing interest."

Severus wasn't so sure but he had no desire to crush the hope in her. Severus grabbed one of the oven trays instead of continuing the conversation and headed back out to the shed so Hermione could pile the meat on it. She had already gotten started, donning her protective apron made of plastic bags taped together and was digging into the buck.

"I need its hooves and antlers," he told her.

"Have at it," she said. "I need to sit for a bit anyway."

He frowned as he watched her take a seat in the corner and sort of curl up, wincing as she did so.

"Are you all right?"

"Mm hm, just a sore stomach. Just...give me a minute."

Severus took over where she left off, he would take what he wanted later, his needs weren't urgent.

"I'm going to teach you a new spell," he informed her.

"Great, what is it."

"A preservation one, the same kind of spells that had been placed on our food when we left London."

Hermione nodded, shifting to get up and come pay attention.

"Stay seated, I'm not teaching you anything yet."

She said nothing for a while and Severus continued his work in silence for a time, until Hermione spoke.

"Thanks for taking me out today, I was going a bit stir crazy in the house," she said.

"You're unaccustomed to staying in one place aren't you," he noted.

He had noticed it at Regulus' place too.

"Well yeah, it's safer to always be on the move."

"That really all depends on how you look at it."

"Hey, you're skinning it," she said, intentionally changing the subject or not he couldn't be sure.

"Yes, I'm aware. Don't sound so surprised, I do know how to survive on my own as well. I've been doing so nearly as long as you have been alive," he snapped.

"All right all right, no need to get all defensive," she muttered.

xXx

Severus was distinctly aware of the missing little bundle of heat he had grown accustomed to sleeping with the past week or so. He opened his eyes, knowing she was the late sleeper out of the two of them, for her to be missing... Or had he slept in again? No, a quick glanced confirmed everyone else was in the room and asleep.

Narcissa's eyes opened, devoid of the grogginess of sleep, she must have been awake for a bit already. Her eyes flickered in the direction of the door.

"I think she went downstairs but it was some time ago," she told him.

Severus shoved the blanket off of him and got up deeming it better to check on her. Once she got something into her head - eg. to sneak out for something, she would do it.

He made his way downstairs and caught the sound of sniffling coming from the dining room. He found her sitting at the table in tears. What the hell?

"Hermione?"

She looked up at him and wiped at her face.

"What's wrong?" He asked, glancing around to make sure everything was all right, no bandits waiting in corners to kill him, or worse Death Eaters. But the girl seemed upset, not afraid.

"There's something wrong with me," she murmured. "I- I'm bleeding."

She whispered the last word but he still caught it. His eyes roved over her form but she didn't seem injured and he certainly couldn't see any blood.

"I went to the toilet this morning and...and I was bleeding," she tried to explain.

His frown deepened, unsure what she was getting at, he still couldn't see any wounds on her.

"Did you hear me?" She asked. "I have...an internal hemorrhage or I've ruptured something."

_Internal?_ "Where exactly are you bleeding?" He asked slowly.

Her eyes flickered downwards and realization dawned. _Merlin no!_

"This has never happened to you before?" He asked.

"Of course not, not like this. I already checked and we don't have any healing potions left."

"A healing potion isn't going to fix this," he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. "How could this not have happened to you before? You said you were fifteen."

"What does one have to do with the other?"

"Just...sit right there, don't move. I'm going to get Narcissa."

"What? Why? Can she heal me?"

"You don't need to be healed, you're not injured. Just wait there."

He quickly escaped the room before she tried to question him further. Once upstairs, he beckoned Narcissa to join him in the hallway.

"What is it?" She asked softly.

"Hermione has begun her...menses," he told her, wincing at the word. "She thinks she is injured, that she might be dying. She is fifteen, should she not have had this already?"

"It's not uncommon for it to come late, stress and weight can factor into that and considering the life she leads I would say those are likely causes. She is definitely in need of a good meal, and living this way must certainly be stressful for a girl her age. It's hard enough on adults. Also-"

Severus held up a hand for her silence. "Forget I asked. Just explain things to the girl please. I think it would be better for her if it came from a woman."

Narcissa shot him an amused look before heading downstairs and finding Hermione wiping at her eyes, obviously having been crying. She certainly wasn't the first girl to fear she was dying when her period had come. Narcissa had been prepared beforehand but even when it had arrived there had still been a flash of panic before reason once again resumed.

"Hermione?"

Narcissa took a seat beside her and Hermione's eyes narrowed in irritation.

"What's going on? Severus couldn't get out of here fast enough and then he sends you down?"

"Yes, he told me what happened," she said, trying to give her a reassuring smile. "First off, there is nothing wrong with you, you certainly aren't injured or dying. This is just the beginning of your cycle, all girls your age get it, some even younger than you."

Hermione just looked completely lost.

"Did your mother never explain any of this to you?"

"My mum died when I was a kid."

As far as Narcissa was concerned she was still a kid.

"I'm sorry. But someone must have taken care of you. Didn't anyone explain?"

"I lived with some guy, he was only like, ten years older than me. It had been just us since I was little and he never said anything," Hermione explained.

So either the boy didn't know, or just like Severus - every other male really - he felt too uncomfortable to talk about it.

"You said this was the beginning, how long does it last?"

"Anywhere between four to seven days usually, it varies, but it comes back every month."

Her jaw dropped and she looked utterly horrified. "Why!?"

"It's your body maturing, letting you know you're old enough to bear children now."

Narcissa didn't think it was possible but she looked even more horrified.

"Do you...know about sex? Babies?"

Lucius had taken care of this talk with Draco. They had long decided that any boys would be Lucius' responsibility in that department and she would deal with the girls.

"Yeah I guess, sort of. I mean, most of my knowledge comes from dirty jokes Theon told me. I found a smutty novel once. So I get the gist of it."

Narcissa was torn between wanting to laugh and wanting to weep for the girl. What a terrible way to learn about such things. Dirty jokes and a smutty novel? Hardly a proper education.

"Why don't we deal with your immediate problem first, then I think we have a lot to discuss."

Hermione wasn't sure she was going to like what she was about to learn.

xXx

Hermione entered the upstairs room, sort of dazed and a little bit grossed out. Narcissa had explained a hell of a lot and Hermione was having a bit of trouble absorbing it, she wasn't sure she wanted to absorb it. Some of it was just flat out unpleasant. And she was even more mortified she had gone to Severus with her problem. No wonder he had looked at her like she was completely barmy when he realized what was going on. _Ugh!_ He must have thought her a complete idiot as well. She wasn't sure how she was going to look him in the eye when she saw him next.

Narcissa had briefly touched on pregnancy and labor and gone into a bit of her labor with Draco. Why would any woman willingly have a child if that was what they had to put up with?

"What have you and my mother been doing?" Draco asked, spotting her from his place at the window. "Severus wouldn't even let me go downstairs."

"We were talking," she replied vaguely.

"About?"

"About things that are none of your business."

Draco's brow furrowed. Did her voice rise an octave? He disregarded it with a shake of his head. Girls had always been weird. They had their perks but their down side was definitely their weirdness. That and their mood swings.

"Whatever. Severus has gone out again. You can take watch now, I've been doing it all morning."

"Right."

Hermione took a seat next to the window, they needed to do something about this window so they could look out without being seen. Just less risky that way and they could actually keep an eye out better. Though Hermione would just prefer to move on from this place.

xXx

It wasn't long before Severus returned and climbed up through the window. He gave her a side long glance.

"Hermione," his greeting was a bit stiff.

"Hey," she returned. "Uh, look, about this morning, I'm sorry about my almost panic attack."

"One can hardly blame you for your ignorance on such matters considering the isolation you've lived in."

What an insulting way to say 'it's ok.' Jerk. She really wasn't a fan of the word ignorance in reference to her. Still, she didn't try to make conversation with him. Irritated or not, she was still embarrassed about everything.

He swept off towards the stairs and she went back to keeping watch.

Draco came up and joined her an hour later, distracting her from her task. But then, they rarely saw anything of note, the occasional Corrupted and that was it. So they were engaged in a competitive game of naughts and crosses on the floor in short order, their carvings becoming more deeper and jagged as their frustration with their tied games kept mounting.

"This is stupid," Draco said. "Let's play something else. This is going nowhere."

"Sounds like quitter talk," Hermione goaded. "If you quit that means I win."

He scowled at her but carved his next move into the wood of the floor. While Hermione was trying to decide hers, staring down at the floor intently, Draco shot her an amused look. She was a strange girl. But he actually kind of liked her. Not as irritating as Pansy and not as empty and shallow as the Greengrass sisters.

Still, he sort of wished he had his old life back. He may have seen a lot of awful things but he was at least safe and fed. Although he really didn't want to become a Death Eater. Why did they even need Death Eater's now? Muggles and mudbloods were all gone now. Half breeds had been run out of civilized society and most species of magical creatures were almost extinct. The world belonged to the pure, except outside where it belonged to the Corrupted.

Their first week out here before Severus and Hermione had turned up, that had been horrible. It was lonely, they were hungry, afraid without the guidance and protection of his father who was incapacitated. All his mother did was worry and try to comfort his father. At least now he had a companion in Hermione, even if she was a squib.

Narcissa was standing in the door frame watching her son play with the other girl. He was looking less despondent than usual, that was nice to see. Though quite often he would shoot her a perplexed look, trying to puzzle her out.

Narcissa had to admit as well, she was strange. She seemed to take the Corrupted and the struggle to survive with ease and a grin, but fell to pieces at her period and the sex talk. It had been amusing to see Severus so uncomfortable though. Men...

She felt Severus stop to stand beside her and she glanced up to see him watching the teens as well.

"Do you think anyone will ever stop the Dark Lord Severus?" She asked quietly.

"I'm not sure there is anyone left to try," he replied. There hadn't seemed to be much of the Order left last time he'd been there. "There is no guarantee he can even be stopped."

Narcissa sighed. "What were we all thinking?"

Severus didn't say anything. What was there to say?


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Thank you so much for all the reviews, alerts and faves. :)

**Chapter 11**

Hermione had mostly avoided Lucius Malfoy since her time in the house. The fact that he was bed ridden and often unconscious or doped up on pain potions helped with that a lot. She hadn't even been around for his lucid moments.

Unfortunately her luck in that area finally ran out. Severus and Draco were out foraging for what they could, apparently their trips were taking them further and further from the house. And Narcissa was downstairs and indisposed. She had found a way to take nice hot baths. Shovelling in mass amounts of the cleaner looking snow which she would usually get Draco to do, then she would use her magic to melt the snow and heat the water. Cleanliness was very important to the woman it seemed. While Hermione enjoyed being clean, it just wasn't a priority for her.

So Hermione was on her own when she heard Lucius' voice calling out for his wife. Hearing his voice so clearly set off the tingling of familiarity but she pushed it aside to see what he needed. As soon as she entered his room his alert gaze settled on her.

"Who are you?" He demanded.

"Hermione," she replied.

"Where is Narcissa?"

"In the bath. And Severus and Draco are out. Do you need something?"

"Water."

She stared at him, not moving a muscle. His face set into a nasty scowl and still she did not move.

"Are you deaf girl?" He snapped.

"You know, please is a magic word too," she said.

His scowl became even more fierce and he geared up to berate her for her insolence. But before he could, Narcissa swanned into the room.

"Lucius," she began. "Don't act like such a brute. It certainly won't kill you to use your manners."

Narcissa knew they owed a lot to the work Severus, Hermione and Draco had been doing. Severus and Draco would help but there was no reason for Hermione to, yet she did it without complaint. Narcissa would not let her husbands boorish behaviour turn the girl off of helping them. Out of all of them, she was the better hunter. Severus wouldn't even touch the girls bow and Narcissa knew why. He didn't know how to use it, otherwise he would not have hesitated in taking it from the girl and doing it all himself. He had some issues with control that man.

"Hermione dear, would you mind getting me a glass of water for Lucius please?"

Hermione gave her a pleasant smile. "Of course Narcissa."

She whirled around to do just that but not before giving Lucius a scathing look.

"You shouldn't pander to her," Lucius told his wife.

Narcissa tsk'd him, shaking her head. "I want you to treat her with some respect Lucius, you have no idea how helpful she has been. None of us would have survived without her and Severus. Just play nice."

Lucius didn't say anything, but that he wasn't arguing meant something.

Hermione came back with the glass of water in hand and left it with Narcissa before quickly exiting the room. She didn't like the vibe she got from Lucius. Plus he seemed like an ass-hole. Returning to the window room she continued to keep watch while waiting for Draco and Severus to come back. They had been staying in this house for three weeks now and she was beyond ready to get out of here. The small house was making her antsy. She had stayed in places longer with Theon but the older she got, the more staying in the same place didn't sit well. In the last couple of years they hadn't stayed in the same place longer than two weeks.

Keeping watch was a pretty boring job, especially since they only had the one window. It was the same space of land every day and most of it was trees and snow, although at least the snow was starting to melt. But it got old fast.

She spied Severus and Draco heading towards the house at a hurried pace and they quickly scurried up the porch roof and into the window.

"Pack your things," Severus ordered. "We're leaving."

She frowned, her head tilting to the side curiously. "Not that I'm complaining, but why?"

"Werewolves," Draco told her, disappearing into the next room.

"We will drag Lucius if we have to but we need to get away from here."

Hermione nodded. She didn't know much about werewolves and had never encountered them before, she had only read one fictional book with them in it and it had not painted them in a favourable light. Though how much of it could be true she had no idea. But the fact Severus was on edge at their mere presence in the area, this was definitely not a positive turn of events.

She set to gathering her things and shoving them into her pack, along with some of the other useful little tidbits they'd collected over the weeks. When she was all packed up she went into the sleeping room where the others were discussing what to do with Lucius. He was still very weak and still had the frequent bout with the Dark Lord through his mark, but they couldn't stay here any longer, not with a pack of werewolves in the vicinity apparently.

"Couldn't we make a sled for him?" Hermione suggested.

"We have little time and lack the materials," Severus replied. "We need to leave now."

Severus and Narcissa helped him dress warmly and got him to his feet. The pair had to carry much of his weight and their pace would be slow. The first hurdle came in trying to get him down from the window. He practically dropped right over the edge of the porch roof but Severus was there to help prevent the indignity of ending up as a crumpled heap in the muddy snow.

Severus didn't allow them to stop, their pace was too slow for breaks he said. They couldn't afford to stay in one place too long. You couldn't hide from a werewolf, they could smell you. Though their senses weren't as heightened when they weren't transformed they were still far superior to humans.

Severus and Narcissa helped Lucius while Hermione scouted ahead, picking routes that would leave the least tracks and keeping an ear and eye out for trouble. Draco brought up the rear a couple of metres behind his parents, the altered cricket bat his only weapon.

They continued well into the night but were forced to take breaks as they were all tiring. They couldn't light a fire and they had no shelter, they just had to keep moving. They were lucky Lucius wasn't once plagued by his mark.

As dawn broke, so did they. Travel had been uneventful thankfully, no corrupted and no werewolves. Hopefully travel would continue with that sort of luck.

xXx

"Hermione! Lucius!"

Severus' hissed shout didn't seem to have any effect on the pair that had just fallen several floors below as both were unmoving.

"Lucius!" Narcissa called softly, urgently.

He was the first to move and begin to recover himself, staring up at the other three.

They had been travelling through Waterford hoping to lose the pack of werewolves that had picked up their scent. They were hoping the Corrupted would prove a match for them considering the amount of them, or that they wouldn't follow the smaller group into such dangerous territory. They had been making their way through what was a half tipped office building which was being held up by the building beside it and as far as Lucius could recall, the floor had caved in and he and the girl had fallen through several floors.

"Check Hermione," Severus ordered as the girl had yet to move.

Lucius peered down at the girl and nudged her in the shoulder with his foot. She let out a pained groan as she sat up and Lucius helped her to her feet by pulling on her arm.

"Ow," she hissed through clenched teeth, tossing him a glare before looking up at the others. "Don't suppose you have any rope."

"No," Severus replied. "And it's too dangerous to climb down from here. You're going to have to keep going and we'll meet up on the other side. Take care of her Lucius."

Hermione scowled up at him for that comment. Who was taking care of who?

The sound of the disturbing groaning hisses of the Corrupted made them all tense, looking in the direction the noise was coming from. They were on Hermione and Lucius' level.

"Corrupted," Hermione whispered.

Lucius glanced back up to Severus. "Watch over my family Severus."

With that, he took Hermione by the arm and they both ran off, disappearing beneath the floors they had fallen through.

"Will they be all right?" Narcissa asked.

"Both are capable," Severus replied, getting the other two to move on as he tried to disguise his worry for Hermione and Lucius.

The two didn't exactly get on very well, and not in the friendly/nasty way she had with Regulus. Severus had noticed how Hermione avoided having to get near the other man and Lucius seemed content to treat her as he would a house elf. He would never treat his own family that way and he knew he couldn't pull that kind of bullshit with Severus, so that left Hermione. The girl didn't exactly take it, but she did seem to bite her tongue and hold her more smart ass comments, most unlike the way she had behaved with Regulus. But despite Lucius' still fading weakness, he did have a harder air about him and Hermione had likely picked up on that. Hopefully they would be able to work together for this. Or at the very least, not kill each other.

xXx

Hermione and Lucius were running, which was a bit difficult with the steep slant they were on and the darkness of the corridors they were traversing. Night had fallen hours ago, making their journey that much more perilous.

The Corrupted were catching up to them as they weren't nearly so careful and Lucius was starting to slow down. The Corrupted would be on their heels soon. She pulled Lucius' arm and ducked into the nearest door, quickly glancing around looking for something that could save their asses. They could slide down the floor to the other side, they'd hit the glass windows, possibly go through them, unless they could slide towards the door down there.

"Malfoy!"

"What?" He snapped, irritated with her man handling.

"That door."

He saw what she was meaning and he grabbed her, propelling her forward and towards it, following behind. She grabbed the door handle as she slid down but it didn't open in like they had initially assumed and the door flew back. Hermione gripped the handle and Lucius sliding towards it, slammed into the edge of the door as it opened. He was flung to the side, sliding further down and hitting the glass windows. Smashes and thunks alerted them to the Corrupted that were trying to get to them. Some of them smashed through the glass and the cracks were spreading towards them.

"Hurry," Hermione urged, Lucius had more distance to travel.

Lucius rose to his feet and climbed up on the open door, pulling Hermione up after him. They lurched as the door they were sitting on buckled, the hinges coming off the walls. They both rolled back, pulling the door with them and slamming it shut. Lucius held it closed while Hermione grabbed a pipe from the floor and slid it through the handle across the door and the wall. From their position they could see Corrupted falling to their deaths through the windows along with shards of glass.

They took a moment to catch their breaths, glancing up at the other side of the room. Climbing up there was going to be very difficult. She grabbed a couple of arrows from her quiver and handed them to him then took out another two for herself. Keeping her hands very close to the point of the arrow, she stabbed it into the wall, doing so repeatedly to climb her way up the side of the room to the door. She could hear Lucius follow suit behind her.

Once back out into the hallway they walked the uncomfortable balance between the floor and the wall. At least they had lost the Corrupted so they didn't have to run it. They continued their walk in silence, keeping an ear out for the others or for danger.

"How's the arm?" Hermione asked when the silence just got too uncomfortable for her.

"Fine. It is also none of your concern. Do not ask again."

Hermione rolled her eyes, knowing he couldn't see her in the darkness. She never thought she would meet someone who made Severus look like sunshine and light.

_Come on Hermione he's been through a lot._

And this wasn't an easy life and he was coming into it half expired already. She supposed she could cut him some slack.

A hissing, spitting noise made her pause and her arm shot out to halt Lucius as well. She knew that sound.

"What is it?" He whispered.

"A Sparkie," she replied, crouching low, her eyes darting around trying to see through the darkness.

"And that is?"

"A Corrupted, been like that a long time and absorbed a lot of magic from both wizards and other Corrupted. It's become something...else. If it finds us, we're fucked."

"Your language is atrocious."

"And your priorities are screwed up. My language is the least of our worries now shh."

Hermione stayed still, constantly scanning their surroundings and trying to pinpoint just how far away the Sparkie was and if it would hear them if they tried to move. At least it was dark, it would limit its sight too. She took off her bow and got ready, just in case.

xXx

Severus shoved Draco's head down lower while crouching down further himself. They were having their own problems with the Corrupted and Severus was reluctant to use his gun for the noise. This place was positively infested and he had no desire to attract more attention to them. He hoped Lucius and Hermione were doing better than they were.

He glanced to his right where Narcissa and Draco were huddled low. Behind the old desk they were using for cover four or five Corrupted were shuffling about, trying to find them. Severus stiffened as he heard one of them come near the desk and he raised his gun. There was going to be no choice. The creature rounded the desk and Severus blew its head off without hesitation, rising to his feet and quickly taking out the others in the room. He glanced down at Narcissa and Draco.

"Run."

Narcissa pulled Draco to his feet and they sprinted out the door on the other side of the room helping each other to keep their balance on the slant.

xXx

Hermione and Lucius stared upwards, in the direction the gunshots had come from.

"They're in trouble," she whispered, so low Lucius had to strain to hear her.

Severus would never use his gun if there were another choice. It had to be bad. They heard the Sparkie start heading off in the direction of the shots too, that certainly wouldn't help their situation.

"Every Corrupted in hearing range is going to be heading towards them."

Hermione was on her feet and following after the Sparkie, sure footing be damned, she needed to get to them. Corrupted _and_ a Sparkie, they were so screwed.

She could hear Lucius trying to keep up behind her. As Hermione rounded the corner she caught sight of the Sparkie. It was hard to miss now. The more those things exerted themselves, the more noticeable they become. It was like it had fire crackers going off beneath it's skin, it was actually kind of fascinating. But it could shoot you with those things beneath it's skin, it spat them at you, set you on fire. The other thing about the Sparkie was it's complete defiance of gravity, or maybe it had sticky hands and feet. It could run up walls and across ceilings, and it did it on all fours. It still resembled a human in some ways, but it was obviously in the process of becoming more beast than man. She had only ever seen another one once in her whole life and of course, as was the norm with their encounters, they avoided it rather than taking it on. That Sparkie had been far more along in it's...evolution? than this one, but both were dangerous.

Hermione kept following the Sparkie, hoping it wouldn't see her and that it would lead her straight to the others. Unfortunately, that latter hope was completely killed as it ran out the window and climbed up the buildings outer wall.

"No!" She hissed it, glancing around.

It was headed up so Severus and the others must not have found a way down. Lucius stopped behind her and she could hear his laboured breathing. She glanced up at him thinking it over for a moment. No, she couldn't ask him to use his magic. The last thing they needed was the Dark Lord turning up here with a horde of Death Eaters.

She let out a strained laugh at the thought. Dark Lord, Death Eaters, Corrupted, Sparkies and Werewolves. What an awful day that would be. They were only the Dark Lord and a few Death Eater's away from it.

"What on earth are you laughing at?" He snapped at her.

"You've got to laugh... or you'd just cry right?"

Maybe hysteria was setting in. She was tired and scared and worried for the others. How worried must Lucius be though? That was his wife and son up there.

_Ok, focus Hermione. Don't fall apart, just hold on for a little bit longer. _

Just a little bit longer. Even if she had hours to go before a resolution or a safe point, she would tell herself, just a little bit longer. It was easier to manage as long as she believed this couldn't last much longer. She glanced around again, poking her head out the smashed windows and grinning at what she saw.

"Look, window washer platforms," she pointed.

With the tilt of the building they could try and get to the cables holding the platform and use them to pull themselves up. Because the building was pushed to the side, they wouldn't be climbing straight up. It would still be difficult going, but still easier than having to go straight up.

"Do you think you could manage it?" She asked.

Lucius nodded, though he looked like he would rather do anything else.

"Quickest way. At least the Sparkie thought so."

He just gave her a withering look. Both of them flinched at the sounds they heard echoing throughout the building though. The other Corrupted. They could hear the footsteps, the snarls and growls. Hermione looked back to the platform. It would probably be better to try and slide down to it and grab the cable from there rather than trying to go straight across.

Hermione grabbed the ledge and pulled herself up and out. With many of the windows smashed it left places to hold onto. This was still dangerous as hell even with the slanted building. She glanced back to see how Lucius was doing and he appeared to be coping as well as her. She turned forward again and her foot suddenly slipped, she went sliding down the window and through a smashed one on the next floor. It happened so fast she didn't even have time to scream. She scrambled for the edge, her hands finding their grip, but not without considerable pain as shards of glass still in place cut up her palms. She let out a pained groan as she tried to stop herself from screaming and attracting more attention.

She heard a shuffling above her and looked up to see Lucius there, taking hold of her wrists and hoisting her up.

"Thanks."

He just nodded and they continued on until they reached the platform. Hermione needed to do something about her hands, she would never be able to maintain a grip on the cable with her blood making it all slippery. She pulled off her gloves, they were all torn to shreds now anyway, and shrugged off her pack, going through her bag looking for something to wrap her palms in. She found a t-shirt, it would have to do, the material would be slightly more grippable than her woollen gloves would have been anyway.

She tried to tear at it but her hands weren't co-operating and she couldn't be sure whether it was the cold or the pain at fault. This was making the climb up the cable seem more dangerous by the second.

Lucius suddenly slapped her hands away and took the t-shirt, tearing strips and tying them for her.

"Thanks again," she muttered.

"You go up first," he ordered.

He didn't trust her not to fall now that she was injured and he had to make sure she made it back to Severus intact. He didn't want to face the mans temper should Lucius fail, Severus had his family with him. Also, though loathe to admit it, she was useful. And as a last resort, she was a meat shield should he need one.

They made their way up the cable, Lucius keeping enough distance between them so they were never standing on the same window or the same metal framing.

More shots rang out and Hermione tried to pick up the pace. She couldn't recall a time Severus'd had to use his gun so much in the space of an hour. As she neared the next floor, the shots sounded clear and close.

"I think this might be the floor they're on," she said.

They both crouched over the edge, trying to see in, but there was no visual sign of Severus and the others. Hermione climbed in, still holding the edge so she wouldn't go sliding down the floor. Lucius followed and they both stayed still, trying to pick up the others position by sound.

Lucius was suddenly tackled from the side and thrown to the ground. Both him and the snarling, spitting Corrupted went rolling across the floor and hit the far wall. Hermione let go of the window, sliding down to join them, pulling her switch-blade from her back pocket and flipping it open. She slid right into the Corrupted and wrapped her arm around its neck, repeatedly stabbing at its jugular with her other hand. When if finally stilled, she got off it and Lucius pushed the corpse off of himself.

She had reacted so quickly to save him. Lucius was really beginning to understand why Severus kept her around. He pulled himself to his feet as more gunshots rang out and both went running in that direction.

Hermione could smell the smoke before they reached them and she knew the Sparkie had got to them. That they were running downwards was helpful to her speed, though she prayed she didn't trip up and impale herself on something. These old buildings were hazardous.

She burst into the next room, being confronted with several Corrupted, the Sparkie and what was fast becoming an inferno. Severus and the others were there too, Severus trying to protect Narcissa and Draco in the corner. He couldn't have much ammo left.

Hermione took out her bow and fired an arrow at the Corrupted, taking them out first. An arrow each, straight through the head. Severus had already taken out a fair few, thank goodness for that because she was down to her last few arrows as well.

She had tried to be careful, conserve them, retrieve them from corpses, but she was going to have to start making some of her own soon. If they survived this confrontation.

Hermione drew another arrow and fired one at the Sparkies head. It bounced harmlessly off it. Her jaw dropped. Did it have fucking stone skin or something?

All firing an arrow at it had done was draw its attention to her. It turned its blazing eyes on her. Hermione didn't know how to kill this, she had no bloody idea. She staggered back a couple of steps as it advanced on her.

"Uh...Severus?"

She didn't know what to do. Corrupted and bandits died much easier.

"The window!" He yelled.

Severus shot it to draw its attention back to him. _The window?_ What the hell was he on about? A moment later, realisation smacked into her. The slant! Push it out the window somehow. Her eyes darted around, trying to figure out some way to do it.

"Girl!"

She looked at Lucius and he pointed towards a table half way through the double doors across the way. Severus was busy trying to keep the thing distracted.

"Help me," she said.

It was a big table, a conference table, no way she could push it by herself. They made their way over, Hermione sliding across to the top to be able to push it from the other side. It was difficult to find purchase on the tilted floor, but they managed. Draco and Narcissa were able to get over to them while the Sparkies attention was fixed on Severus. Between the four of them they pushed it to a point that any further and it would go sliding down the floor, and Severus tried to draw the creature into position. When he did, they pushed it. It slid with surprising speed across the floor, hitting the Sparkie and taking it with it, smashing through the window. Severus dove out of the way and went rolling down the floor. Lucius ran towards him, sliding down the floor and grabbing Severus' hand before he could vanish out the window. Lucius pulled him up, they almost both went tumbling out the window when the flames near them suddenly flared up stronger. But soon both men had rejoined the others.

"We need to get out of here quickly," Severus said. "That fire is going to be a beacon to the werewolves."

"And Corrupted are making their way up from the gunshots," Hermione informed him.

"Could this day get any worse?" Severus muttered.

Hermione couldn't help the slightly hysterical laugh, drawing the gazes of her companions as they made their way out of the burning room.

"I was just thinking the exact same thing earlier," she explained.

"Really, and what did you conclude?"

"Well, no Dark Lord and no Death Eaters. So there's definitely room for this day to get worse."

"I thought you were supposed to be the positive one."

"That was positive. Our day could be worse, but it isn't."

She flashed him a grin and he felt the juvenile urge to roll his eyes.

xXx

They had found another place to stay, it was a pretty dilapidated apartment building and they suspected even in its day it wasn't in very good condition. They had found a suite that someone else had apparently tried to hole up in. They chose it because the door could be barricaded, there were a multitude of candles and the windows had already been blacked out to stop the light escaping.

They entered and barricaded the door behind them then set about searching for anything useful. Hermione took the bathroom, Severus the kitchen, Narcissa and Draco the bedrooms and Lucius took a look around the living room. Since it was all open plan, he and Severus fell into conversation about the events that transpired back in the office building when they had been separated.

"Holy shit!"

Severus was out the door and on his way to the bathroom before Hermione had even finished with her exclamation. He found Hermione standing in the door way of the bathroom. She looked up at him, her expression tinted with sadness. He took a look inside to see what had put such an expression on her face.

In the bathtub, huddled in the corner were the decayed corpses of what appeared to be a mother and her child. There was old blood in the bath, the mother had likely slit her wrists. Whether she took the child out the same way Severus couldn't be sure.

The others had come at Hermione's cry. Narcissa looked horrified, Draco a little green and Lucius mildly curious.

"I suppose she thought it was a mercy, to spare her child...this," Narcissa said softly, breaking the heavy silence.

Hermione glanced at her. She didn't kill Draco and then kill herself at the prospect of living out here. Hermione's own mother hadn't either. Maybe the child died of something else? The mother followed after her? Hermione didn't like the murder suicide theory, it was a little heart breaking.

Severus looked at the girl and ushered her out. "Take the kitchen Hermione, I'll search here."

"I'm ok, I've seen dead bodies before. I can handle it."

"I don't doubt it. But just do as I say."

She scowled at him and headed out. That she didn't put up more of a fight was indicative of how much she actually wanted to continue with her task in the bathroom. Severus didn't want to leave her in here on her own. The scene was unpleasant and disturbing and he just didn't think she should be subjected to it if she didn't have to be.

Narcissa ushered Draco out and Lucius and Severus made quick work of searching the bathroom. They also covered the bodies up with the shower curtain. They would only be staying here the remainder of the night so felt no need to dispose of the bodies properly.

They rejoined the others out in the living room where the candles were lit. Hermione, Draco and Narcissa were already there, sitting amongst piles of blankets they must have found in the bedroom. Hermione had found a couple of boxes of cuppa soup sachet's, creamy mushroom flavour and chicken noodle. It was better than nothing. Actually, the hot soup would probably be quite nice despite the fact it wasn't real soup.

While Hermione and Narcissa were preparing it, Severus noticed Hermione's hands. He told Draco to take over while he sat in front of Hermione, taking a look at them. He couldn't see much through the bloody strips of fabric. He took them off and she winced as the dried blood had made it all sticky.

"What happened?"

"I grabbed a window edge, but there was still glass in it."

Severus examined the wounds before pulling her to her feet along with him. He took her into the kitchen, and pulled a couple of candles closer. He took his water bottle and cleaned the blood off.

"There's still glass in this. Didn't you tend to it at all?"

"No time, we could hear your gun going off and the Sparkie was on its way up to you," she explained.

Severus went back into the bathroom and returned with tweezers. He could hear the Malfoy's in the living room talking quietly amongst themselves while Narcissa heated up the water. He set to digging the shards of glass out of her hands.

"I'm surprised you were able to make such accurate shots with your hands in this condition," Severus observed.

"Desperation I guess," she said, shrugging it off.

She'd had to correct her aim quickly with the weakness in her hands and the pain being completely unhelpful to the process. But it was just a few cuts, nothing she couldn't handle. Although, as she watched Severus pluck little slivers of glass from her hands, she was amazed it didn't hurt more. Well, she didn't have any gloves any more, so maybe her hands were just frozen and numb.

When he finished pulling out all the glass, he washed her hands with more water, disinfected them then daubed on some healing potion from his pack, doing it this way wouldn't waste a whole vial - although since they lacked vials, it was a jar - and she would still get the healing benefits from it.

They rejoined the others in the living room where there was a cup of soup waiting for them. Some bread would go really nicely with this.

"So how many bullets do you have left?" Hermione asked him.

"Half a clip."

Hermione winced. That wasn't very much at all. Hopefully there would be no more incidents.

After dinner Hermione took a candle and headed into the child's room. Although she hated being alone, she didn't mind taking a few moments to herself. She was used to travelling in pairs and it was ok then, there were a fair few moments during the day she could take to herself. Travelling in a group this big though, there was always someone around.

She went into the bedroom and set the candle down on the bedside table, glancing around the room. It was faded, but mostly tidy, dusty. It had clearly been a long time since anyone had been in there.

Hermione took a seat on the bed and it groaned under her weight. Hopefully it wouldn't fall through. It was definitely a little girls room going by the faded floral wall paper and peeling fairy stickers all over everything.

Hermione had never had a room to call her own before. She borrowed empty rooms, slept in tents, but she was always with her parents. They very rarely let her out of their sight. Her first taste of freedom had come with Theon as he raised her to be independent and self reliant.

Today had been kind of heavy. She was used to short bursts of intensity, quick skirmishes. But the last few days had been filled with stress and worry as they knew the werewolf pack had been on to them. They'd had little time to sleep and eat or hunt so they were again dangerously low on food. Hermione wasn't used to this kind of pace and she just wanted things to slow down for a bit.

There was no point in saying it out loud or complaining. Everyone was under enough stress as it was. They didn't need her to start adding negativity to it as well.

She let out a breath, the throbbing in her hands was really beginning to make itself known. And what was she going to to do about arrows? They weren't easy to make, not if she wanted them to be accurate.

The door to the bedroom opened and Draco entered, not bothering to shut the door behind him.

"Hey," he greeted.

"Hey."

He climbed onto the bed beside her, sitting back so he could lean against the wall.

"So...today's been...intense," he said quietly.

Hermione let out a huff of a laugh. Bit of an understatement in her opinion. "Yeah."

There was a long silence before Draco spoke, his tone still low and quiet.

"How do you do it?" He asked.

Hermione glanced up at him. "Do what?"

"You just...shrug it all off. You burst into that room with us and just started...doing what needed to be done and all I could do was huddle in the corner with my mum."

"Well, I've been at it longer than you."

"But you didn't even look afraid, aren't you afraid of anything?"

"Spiders are pretty creepy. Like an evil mix of insect and beast with a dash of nightmare thrown in for good measure," she smiled at him, trying to lighten the mood.

He just gave her a flat look and shook his head. "I've never felt so useless before..."

"You helped us push the table. It was pretty heavy."

"But before that, I wasn't helpful at all. You're...you're very brave. Definitely a Gryffindor."

Hermione frowned. "Is that some kind of lame wizard insult? Because if it is, for that to work your target has to at least know what you're talking about."

Draco let out a small smile. "No, it's...just a thing, never mind." It was both a compliment and an insult in his opinion. The bravery should be commended, but it was also stupidly reckless.

She took in the slump of his shoulders and the defeat on his face, he was still upset about today she guessed.

"You're too hard on yourself Draco, you were fine today. Truth is, I'm scared, almost all the time. We live in a terrifying world."

"I just...I'm just wondering what the point is."

"Point of what?"

"Point of life out here. Every day is a struggle and at the end of it all, what do you have? You've been out here a long time, how do you just keep going? It's so depressing."

"This is going to sound really lame," she sighed. "But I hope."

"Hope for what? That someone's going to find a cure? The Corrupted will die off? Someone will get rid of the Dark Lord? Because I don't see any of those things happening in our life time."

She gave him a small amused smile. "Nothing so grand. Just hope that...tomorrow will be better than today. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. You've just...got to learn to appreciate the little things."

"What's there to be appreciative of?"

"We're alive. And in your case, you're very lucky. You have a mum and dad who would do anything to protect you."

Draco inwardly winced, she knew where to hit to make him feel guilty. Here he had been missing his favourite food, his house, his broom... He had completely taken the fact he still had his parents for granted. His family was still intact while she definitely couldn't say the same.

"So...do you think tomorrow will be better than today?"

She gave him another small smile, this one softer than the last with just a hint of cheekiness to it.

"I hope so."

Draco just rolled his eyes. She was lame, but she was all right he supposed.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

They moved on from Waterford after spending the remainder of the night in the run down candle filled apartment. They were still concerned about the werewolf pack that followed them but hoped they would become more interested in the bandits they had found. Severus and Lucius had split off to try and draw the werewolves towards the bandits while Hermione had taken Narcissa and Draco through the rest of the city. They had all met up on the outskirts and continued their trek on to Cork.

Though the Malfoy's knew they were headed there, Severus hadn't revealed why. But as the Malfoy's had little option they had already decided to tag along.

Hermione was walking with Draco up ahead while he helped her make some new arrows. She had saved pieces of old broken ones and had started collecting anything useful to the process some time ago. Maybe Severus could try and get her some more if they came across someone to trade with, or maybe in Cork- He quickly realised the folly of that thought. Once in Cork they would part ways, she to be poked, prodded and tested on and he to...surviving. The thought didn't bring the anticipation it once had. He supposed it would be sad to say goodbye to her when the time came. Perhaps in a couple of decades he would see her again after a cure had been found. If one was ever found.

They were only a couple of days from Cork, obviously their pace had been slowed down by detours, Severus' recovery and Lucius' affliction. What should have taken a week at most, and he was being generous with that time frame, had taken them so much longer.

Severus refocused his attention on Hermione. Her and Draco's voices had drifted out to them in the tiny silent apartment last night. He had to agree with Draco's assessment, Hermione definitely would have been sorted into Gryffindor had she been allowed to attend Hogwarts. Their conversation had been interesting. Hermione's motivation to keep going, to be able to maintain such a sunny disposition through it all, it was unique and something he had wondered about before. He had come across so many who had been beaten down by this life and consumed by their losses. Hermione held on to her positivity, at times seemed to try and blanket herself in it. Maybe it was a coping mechanism. She had seemed to cheer Draco up though. In the time they had joined the Malfoys the boys despondency had faded, though it had reared its head last night. But even now, as he helped Hermione with her arrows he seemed lighter. The friendship was good for him. Severus couldn't help but wonder though, would the friendship remain if Draco knew she were muggle born? He had after all been raised on the same beliefs as his father.

Severus didn't know what he would do with the Malfoys once they reached Cork. He highly doubted Lucius would want to join the Order. Perhaps Severus would take them with him and stop in Wicklow to get Lucius' mark removed.

The only actual thriving - or at least secure - settlement he knew of was Potter's. Last he had been there it had been about nine families strong and a dozen or so other individual squibs and wizards eager to carve a life for themselves with people who weren't interested in killing others for personal gain. Maybe Severus could leave Lucius and his family there. At least Draco would have the opportunity to mingle with people his own age and at least try to finish his childhood without issue. And after he had the Malfoys settled he would move on from there. Maybe it was time to try his hand overseas. There were ways to escape the UK.

"Hermione, Draco," Severus called as loud as he dared, drawing the attention of both teens as they paused and looked back at him. "We're going to break for lunch."

They meandered back to the group as Lucius and Narcissa took a seat on a couple of fallen logs. Severus doled out the rations, it wasn't much but they just had to make do.

"I guess that means you think we lost the werewolves," Hermione said. He raised a questioning brow prompting for an explanation. "You're not making us eat and walk at the same time."

"True enough. I do think they're preoccupied with the bandits. But I still don't want to linger."

Hermione nodded and they sped up their eating. The entirety of their break lasted about ten minutes before they were back on the road. Figuratively speaking of course. They had left the actual road behind hours ago. Hermione couldn't wait for the rest of this snow to melt, more for summer to come.

Hermione and Draco had once again wandered ahead of the group, Draco still helping her with her arrows. Severus was about to call out to them, he didn't like the widening distance while they weren't on their guard. They were too far away should something happen. But before he could say anything, an explosion went off right beside them, sending them both flying over what he hoped was not a high cliff. All hell broke loose then. There were men shouting orders, gunshots and arrows flying. Severus shoved both Lucius and Narcissa down behind a rocky outcropping. They were in no way prepared to take on this many bandits.

xXx

"Draco?"

Hermione was on her knees, leaning over Draco's prone form. His eyes fluttered open at her voice.

"H'mione..."

Hermione didn't know what to do. Draco had been badly injured in the blast, there was a stick going right through his chest and he was bleeding badly. She only knew enough to know not to pull it out. She chanced a glance up at the top of the cliff, it hadn't been a plunge to their deaths, but it had hurt like a bitch. There had been gunshots before but that seemed to have died down, now it was all footsteps and shouting voices. She needed Severus, maybe he still had some potions. At the very least he had magic. Draco was getting so pale now.

"I need to get Severus, I-"

The voices above were getting closer and they were not familiar. Who ever was up there was coming for them.

"Draco this is probably going to hurt I'm so sorry," she whispered.

She hooked her hands under his armpits and dragged him beneath the rocks of the cliff. It wasn't exactly safe, but it would keep them out of the line of gunfire. He let out a pained groan as they moved.

"I'm sorry," she said again, knowing it probably didn't mean much.

God she hoped Severus and the others would stop them from coming down here. Hermione had no idea how to tend a wound this serious, at least not while there was something still stuck in him. All she really knew was, disinfect, apply pressure, keep clean, elevate if necessary, just the basics. She could stitch if she had to, she had done that once. And she had read a surprisingly intact pamphlet about CPR but that didn't really apply here.

The sounds of a struggle above caught her focus and she let out a relieved breath. They were still alive to do something, that was a positive sign. She returned her attention to Draco, he was getting even paler and his lips were looking a little blue. The snow beneath him was slowly turning red, the pool spreading. Her eyes widened, she hadn't noticed it before. He was losing so much blood!

"Draco?" No response. "Draco!?" Panic was starting to take her. "I'm going to get Severus, please just...be ok."

She got up and took a couple of steps back, staring up at the cliff. It was a good six, maybe seven metres. A dark figure suddenly came flying over the edge and landed right on top of her. They both went crumpling to the ground in a tangled heap. Hermione realised immediately he wasn't Severus or Lucius as dark brown hair filled her vision. Her assailant shifted, trying to pin her beneath him and she struggled against him, kneeing him in the groin.

Theon had always taught her to go for that weak spot, that and eyeballs or if she had anything weighty or sharp then to aim for the neck. He had always told her she was so little and anyone who attacked her would most definitely be stronger than her so she had to focus on vulnerable spots.

Her attack on his genitals stunned him a moment, long enough for her to shuffle out from under him. She grabbed a fist full of muddy snow and threw it in his face. In his distraction she pulled out her knife, flipped it open and plunged it into his neck and face over and over again trying to inflict as much damage as she could.

When he was still she hurried to her feet, breathing heavily. She had to spit as some of his blood spatter dribbled into her mouth before turning to the rock wall and trying to figure out a way to climb it. Her hands couldn't find purchase as the left over snow had left them wet and slippery. All she achieved was the reopening of the wounds on her hands.

She stepped back, staring up at the high ledge hopelessly. Should she call out? But she didn't want to draw attention to them if the bandits had forgotten about them...No, she had to take the risk.

Cupping her hands around her mouth, she called up to them.

"Severus! Draco's hurt! He needs help, it's urgent!"

She hoped he heard and she returned to Draco, dropping to her knees at his side. He looked even worse, his breathing had this wet kind of raspy sound to it. She knew enough to know this wasn't a good sign.

"Draco just...hold on a little bit," she pleaded. "Severus should be here soon. He'll be able to fix everything."

But the sounds of the struggle above showed no signs of abating. Hermione gently rested her hands on his chest, either side of the stick.

_Please magic, do something!_

It had kicked in a few times when she'd needed it before. And right now, she really, _really_ needed it.

"Work!" She commanded.

She had no idea how to heal, she could feel her magic, the few lessons Severus had given her had helped her become more familiar with it, but she didn't know how to make do what she wanted, not without the incantation to help channel it and activate it.

"Do something!" She hissed at her hands.

Hot tears were trailing down her cheeks now, she could feel them and they were blurring her vision.

"Please..." She begged. "Stay alive."

Draco coughed and a bit of blood spurted out of his mouth.

"Fuck!" She hissed it out, her panic and exasperation getting the better of her. She stopped with her magic, bitterly disappointed with it for not working when she needed it. She wiped away the blood from his mouth with her sleeve. Never had she felt so useless, not since she was a child, since her parents... Even when Severus had been getting his mark removed and that had been terrifying. But she supposed that was because it had been out of her hands, Severus had been under Regulus' charge then. But now she had no one, Draco had no one useful on hand. More blood was coming out of his mouth and it sounded like breathing was getting harder for him.

Finally the noise above her stopped and Hermione got to her feet, peering up at the ledge.

"Help! Severus! Draco's dying!"

It didn't even occur to her that Lucius, Narcissa and Severus were not the winners of the skirmish. But it was them who appeared at the top and jumped down. Hermione pointed to where she had left Draco and the three rushed over there. Severus dug around in his pack, he had even taken out his wand and was starting to use his magic. Hermione watched, hanging back to give them space. But after a minute he just stopped, his face conveying his sympathy.

"Severus..."

"I'm sorry Narcissa," he said softly.

"Try again," Lucius demanded.

"There is nothing to try Lucius, you cannot bring back the dead."

CPR was about the closest thing to getting the heart started that they could do but with the wood going through his lung... There was nothing Severus could do. Even if they pulled it out and tried CPR, he would bleed to death, or drown because of all the blood in his lungs. Severus was no healer and his speciality was with potions. Anything that might have been useful was made from harder to obtain ingredients so Severus had nothing on hand.

He glanced over at Hermione who was standing there, her hand over mouth as she tried to contain her crying. Narcissa had broken out into sobs and Lucius was holding her, her own eyes red rimmed as he stared at the corpse of his son.

Severus would have to be the voice of reason and he knew it was going to make him look like an insensitive prick. He did feel for Lucius and Narcissa, and the loss of his Godson devastated Severus as well, but it had to be done. They had used magic to fight off those bandits up there and again with Draco. Death Eater's could be on their way.

"Hermione," he barked, his voice harsher than usual. "Scout ahead, find a river we can follow, we need our tracks hidden."

She hesitated, a look of disbelief on her face.

"Go!" He yelled. There was no time to fall apart.

She ran off to do as he bid, remembering there had been one in Waterford, they'd had to cross a bridge because of it. She could vaguely recall what direction it might have been in.

"Severus," Lucius began before Severus cut him off.

"We have to move Lucius, Death Eater's could be here any minute."

"We can't leave Draco here," Narcissa said.

"We won't. Lucius, help Narcissa, I will...bring Draco."

Lucius nodded and hauled Narcissa to her feet, practically tearing her away from her son. Severus reached into his pack and pulled out one of the blankets they had taken from the apartment last night, quickly wrapping Draco up after pulling out the stick. He scooped him up and they followed Hermione's tracks in the snow.

xXx

Camp that night was silent, the atmosphere heavy and sullen. Narcissa had stopped crying but she just sat there now, completely numb looking. Hermione was feeling a bit that way herself. She kind of couldn't believe it had happened. She knew it did and she had been upset at the time, but now a sort of numbness had hit her and she felt like she was still waiting for something but she wasn't sure what.

They hadn't had any trouble with Death Eater's, possibly because they had managed to put enough distance between them and the point they had been attacked. And Hermione had found the river which they had used to hide their trail. Their pace had been quick considering they had a corpse and a near comatose woman slowing them down.

Because of the close call, they had to go without a fire tonight, relying on the moon for light and their blankets for warmth.

Severus glanced at his companions. Narcissa was lying down, her head in her husbands lap and her face devoid of emotion, though the evidence of her tears had left tracks through the blood and grime on her face. The same was true of Hermione, who was sitting hunched under her blanket staring blankly at the ground. She was a little more dirtier than them having been in that explosion and she was covered in both Draco's blood and one of the bandits. There had been no time and no place for her to get cleaned up. She had tried to wash the blood off her hands when they had been at the river and she had got most of it off but Severus couldn't let her waste their time. She was obviously upset and not thinking clearly. No one was right now and it was to be expected, but nor could he let their grief get them all killed.

He felt his Godson's loss keenly. Though Severus had deserted the cause while Draco was in nappies he had still been in a position to see them with some regularity. Severus had become close with the child as he grew. Of course, after a few years of it he'd had to stop. It had been getting far too dangerous to risk and he wouldn't let those kinds of bonds cost him his freedom or his life. So one day he just never went back.

Seeing Draco so grown up had been an experience and though he would never say it out loud, he had been pleased to reconnect with his Godson. And now... He was supposed to protect him, he had vowed to do such at his naming ceremony, and he had failed miserably.

What were they to do with his body? He highly doubted Narcissa would want to bury him out in the middle of nowhere but they couldn't drag him with them. Rigour would make him stiff and unwieldy and eventually he would begin to decay.

But how to bring it up?

xXx

In the morning, no one had much of an appetite and they just sat there. Narcissa was unwilling to move and no one had the heart to force her. She had spent the night alternating between sobbing and lying in depressed silence. No one got any sleep that night and not a word was said between them.

Hermione had barely been able to close her eyes. Every time she did she just saw Draco, lying there, the stick protruding from his chest and blood dribbling out of his mouth. They had both been in that blast, why had he been fatally injured while she had escaped with just a few bumps and bruises from the fall? Not that she wanted to be fatally injured as well, just...why couldn't Draco have been as lucky? Hermione had spent much of the night crying, trying to do it quietly. She hadn't known Draco long, but she had gotten attached. They had lived in a small house together for a while and as the youngest in there they had of course gravitated towards each other. They were both sort of in the same boat. The adults seemed to waver between treating them like adults and heaping responsibility on them and then reverting to treating them like children when they didn't need them any more. It had been infuriating and another thing they had bonded over.

Draco was her friend. And she wanted him back. Of course, her grief was nothing compared to Lucius and Narcissa's. Hermione couldn't imagine what it would feel like to lose a child. For a brief stupid moment she had wondered if it made a difference if you had more than one. She had dismissed the uncharitable thought immediately as callous and absurd.

As the minutes ticked by, the awkwardness around the camp didn't give way and still no one spoke. No one knew what to say. Hermione glanced at Draco's body, wrapped in the blanket. They had to bury him. Sad as it was to leave him out here, in the middle of nowhere where no one was likely to visit, they couldn't bring him with them. To cremate him would only attract attention to their position which they just couldn't risk after yesterday.

Hermione hoped Severus would speak to them because she didn't want to be the one to speak to the heart broken parents. She felt awkward and guilty around them and couldn't help but wonder if they blamed her for not being able to do more. She had been utterly useless and Draco had paid for it.

How could magic not have saved him? Her magic didn't, she had no idea how to use it in a situation like that. She knew it was no excuse but it was an explanation. But Severus, Lucius and Narcissa, how could theirs not have saved him? They were grown ups, they knew how to use their magic. Wasn't it supposed to be wonderful and powerful? Weren't people with magic supposed to be able to accomplish the impossible with it?

It wasn't fair.

xXx

A/N: Thanks for reading. And yeah, I fully expect to get a bit of negativity for this chapter, but come on, shit happens, survival of the fittest, only the strong survive, not everyone can survive the apocalypse and all that. As for Theon, that situation is explained later.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

They had moved, but they hadn't been able to go far. They had just found a safer place to make camp, somewhere a bit more sheltered. They had brought Draco with them and had buried him beneath a tree out of sight of their camp. Hermione had taken her knife and carved Draco's name into the tree. It was his final resting place, something should mark it, even if it wouldn't stay there forever.

Narcissa had spent a lot of time there, Lucius frequented it as well. The heavy atmosphere still pervaded the camp, it hadn't let up in the slightest. In fact it seemed to have gotten worse.

Hermione missed Draco and wanted him back, but she didn't want them all to fall apart over this. Nothing felt right now, no one was ok and she didn't know what to do. Severus even let her out of his sight while she hunted for food. With spring around the corner it would be easier then and mostly Hermione returned with nothing. It was hard to focus.

Severus was even quieter than usual and he was no longer urging them to move. He seemed to have detached himself from the rest of them as well. He was distracting himself by taking inventory of the things he had swiped from the bandits or the contents of their packs. He had picked up some ammo and a couple of extra guns. He also kept tight watch over their rations. One of the positives was no one had any appetite so they weren't going through them.

Hermione glanced around their small camp having returned from another hunting trip, this time her labour had yielded fruit and she had a dead hare with her. Severus was gone, but that wasn't uncommon either, he would disappear for a couple of hours at a time but he always came back.

Hermione hated to admit it to herself but sometimes she was afraid he wouldn't, either because something had happened to him or he just couldn't be bothered with them - her - any longer. He might blame her too. He knew she had magic and still she hadn't saved Draco.

She took a seat on her customary rock and set to skinning the hare. She was all alone. Narcissa and Lucius were gone too, likely with Draco. Hermione got the feeling Lucius didn't like being there, but he did it for Narcissa.

Both Lucius and Severus seemed to handle Draco's loss similarly, never talking about it and distracting themselves from it. Severus by disappearing for hours at a time doing what ever he was doing and Lucius by focusing all his attention on comforting his grieving wife.

With a sigh she refocused on her task. But she had done this so many times her hands could do it without any input from her mind.

Hermione hated the way things were now.

xXx

"Narcissa?"

Hermione rolled over, watching Lucius from beneath her blanket. He was rising out from his own and looking around for his wife. The woman was gone though. She watched Severus sit up also, catching the concern in the other mans voice. Narcissa had likely gone back to Draco. Lucius left the camp in the direction of Draco's burial site.

Hermione rolled onto her back and stared up at the lightening sky. It was still early, very early. Again Hermione hadn't been able to get much sleep, her mind just wouldn't shut down. She might have drifted a little but had stayed in that state between being asleep and awake.

An almost inhuman roar brimming with anguish and anger had both Hermione and Severus on their feet and running towards Lucius' position. God what had happened now?

They reached the tree where they had buried Draco to find a most heart rending sight. Lucius was holding Narcissa, who had hung herself from one of the lower branches of the tree. He was trying to hold her up so the pantihose she had used wouldn't put so much pressure on her neck. Severus moved over to help him while Hermione quickly scampered up the tree, frantically cutting her down. Both men caught her and lay her down on the ground, checking her over and pulling the pantihose from her neck.

Hermione swung down from the branch watching with bated breath. Narcissa was so...blue. She wasn't breathing, not moving at all. They checked her for a pulse, Lucius even tried CPR before Severus stopped him.

"She's been out here too long Lucius," Severus told him. "Hours I would say. She's completely frozen."

Hermione never imagined a man like Lucius Malfoy could break down, but she was rooted to the spot as he did, bent over the form of his dead wife.

To lose your wife and child so close together... They were all that remained of his family so Draco had told her. To lose it all... Would he do as Narcissa had done? Did they need to keep a close eye on him to ensure he didn't? Would it be merciful to let him if he wanted to?

Severus reached across, resting a hand on his friends shoulder in a gesture of comfort, or with the way he was gripping the man maybe it was just shared grief.

Hermione liked Narcissa, she had been kind and at times had offered the same kind of comforts to Hermione as she had to Draco. She was a good person, she didn't deserve this. And Lucius... Hermione didn't know him very well and tried to keep her distance, but she didn't think he deserved this either. It was cruel. Her heart broke for these people.

Hermione wiped at her eyes and quietly slipped away to give them some privacy. She returned to camp and just sat her rock, quickly losing herself in her thoughts.

xXx

Severus and Lucius finished piling the dirt over Narcissa's body and stood in silence, regaining their breath. They'd had to use make shift tools to be able to dig the hole and it had not been easy. The physical exercise helped burn off some of the pent up emotion at least.

Severus was only mildly surprised Narcissa had done this, but still saddened by her loss. Draco had been her whole world, he was her reason to be strong, so without him she just wasn't any more.

His gaze fixed on Lucius. He knew he wasn't the type to do same thing, but he wouldn't discard the notion that Lucius would do something to get himself killed. He wasn't a man prone to recklessness, but if anything could drive him there it would be this.

"I think it time we went our separate ways," Lucius said.

"Is that wise?"

Lucius' eyes narrowed on him and Severus could feel the accusation in them. If Severus hadn't dragged them out here, none of this would have happened. Never mind that if they had stayed at the house there was a very high chance they would have all been torn apart by werewolves sooner or later. But the man was grieving and likely blamed himself as much as he did Severus.

"Don't concern yourself with me, you just worry about your mudblood."

Severus felt his breath catch but fought to remain impassive. "You breathe a word-"

"And who would I breathe a word to Severus?" He snapped. "Besides, the only reason that girl is even alive is because of me."

Severus' brow furrowed deeply. "Explain."

"I remember her," he began. "September nineteenth, nineteen eighty five, when her magic manifested. I was there. I found her hiding in that closet and I said nothing of it. Instead I put her to sleep so she wouldn't make any noise that would give herself away and drew the others away from her location. Why would I undo my own work?"

"Why would you save her?" He asked, genuinely curious to know why he spared the life of something he had spent most of his life annhilating.

Hermione had been so young then, her sixth birthday she had said once. Did she even remember Lucius being there? Was that why she kept her distance from him? Why wouldn't she say anything?

"She was little older than Draco," Lucius replied, lifting his shoulder slightly. Not enough to be called a shrug, a Malfoy did not shrug. Lucius' eyes drifted to the resting place of his son. "She may have been a mudblood, but she was still only a child and I am well aware of the kind of things Dolohov likes to do to little girls." He let out a small sad sigh. "Having a son...it changed the way I saw everything."

He looked up at Severus again, all anger and accusation replaced with an unfathomable sadness.

"What will you do now?" Severus asked.

"I don't know."

Severus let out a harsh breath. "I suggest you go to Wicklow."

"What is in Wicklow?"

"Regulus."

"Hm. I thought he was dead."

"That was the idea," Severus said.

"And why would I want to see Regulus?"

"He can remove your dark mark. He took away mine," he told him, rolling up his sleeve to show him.

"You didn't think to mention this earlier?" His eyes were once again narrowed at his oldest friend.

"I wasn't sure I trusted you then."

"You trust me now?"

"Not exactly. But what ever you're going to do, you would be better off doing it without the dark mark."

"It would certainly be helpful."

Lucius extended his hand to Severus, who gripped it in return.

"Good luck," Lucius said.

"I think you'll need it more than I."

Severus just knew Lucius was going to do something reckless. Not Gryffindor reckless, but it was going to put himself in harms way. They let each other go and Lucius apparated away the very next moment. He was definitely going to do something stupid if he was using those kinds of spells already.

He paid his final respects to the fallen members of the Malfoy family and returned to Hermione. He wondered if he should bring up what he had learned from Lucius. The man had saved her life. Would Hermione want to know that? Lucius hadn't killed her parents, but he hadn't saved them either. He didn't think Hermione would be able to make the distinction. No, if she wasn't going to bring it up, she either didn't know, or didn't want to talk about it. Besides, if she didn't know, what would the knowledge actually do for her? Nothing in his opinion, she would probably be better off not knowing. Nor did he want to bring up bad memories for her.

He found her sitting on her rock gazing absently ahead.

"Pack your things," he ordered. "We're leaving."

She nodded and snapped to it. It didn't take long and after a couple of minutes they were ready to go. Severus made to leave but Hermione stopped him.

"Shouldn't we wait for Lucius?"

"He left."

"What!? For where?"

"I don't know."

Hermione opened her mouth to speak but didn't know what to say, so she just closed it again and let the topic drop. It didn't look like Severus wanted to talk about it anyway.

She gave him his space as they continued their journey. It was strange, it being just them again. But the silence wasn't the comfortable kind it had been before the Malfoy's. As much as she wanted to speak, to say something, talk about something, about what happened at least, she kept her mouth shut. When Severus was in a mood he was even more unpleasant than usual, and with what happened things were shaping up to be pretty terrible.

xXx

"Are we ever going to talk about it?" Hermione asked.

"Talk about what?"

"About what happened. About...them."

"What is there to talk about?"

This was the first conversation they'd had since he had told her to pack her things yesterday. She knew he got broody when he was in any kind of negative mood, and he had every excuse to be in a foul mood right now. But she didn't like the way he was freezing her out again, and she wanted to talk about it.

"Well...I don't know. But something has to be said."

"Why?" He asked, a slight edge to his tone.

"Because you can't just push it away and pretend it never happened."

He whirled on her, his eyes glinting with his anger. "I am not pretending anything," he hissed. "But there is no reason to talk about them."

"Draco was my friend too and I-"

"And if Draco knew you were a mudblood he would not have looked twice at you!"

Her eyes widened and she could not have been more stunned if he had slapped her. Actually, she probably would be less surprised if he had slapped her. She quickly masked the astonishment and let her anger take her. The word didn't bother her exactly, she knew what it meant but it was just a word. It was more the fact that _he_ had used it on her.

"Fuck you Snape."

She turned to storm off and Severus pinched the bridge of his nose. It had been out of his mouth before he could even think about stopping himself. Why was that his fucking go-to word to hurt the people he cared about? Because God dammit he did care about her, annoying as she was. He didn't even carry those prejudices. He just didn't want to talk about the Malfoy's. That loss was too fresh, far too raw. They were the closest thing to friends he had left. And now he didn't even have that. He wasn't sure Lucius would ever move past this. Severus would just be a reminder of the worst part of his life. And he did feel responsible, he should have been paying more attention. He should not have let Hermione and Draco get so far ahead while their guard was down. Though most of their world was a mass graveyard, the parts that still had life were extremely dangerous. He knew this and yet he had allowed them to traverse it like it was nothing more than a stroll through the park.

And now Hermione...fuck. He rushed to catch up with her, it was still dangerous and he wasn't going to make the same mistake again. He followed her tracks easily and found her sitting up in a tree, her knees drawn up and her head bowed, her arms wrapped around both knees and head. He could see from the ground her shoulders were shaking. She was crying but making no sound. He knew the girl to be strong, despite all the shit they had been through since being dumped in each others company nothing had shaken her much that he had seen. He didn't much like seeing her so shaken now.

He stood at the bottom of the tree, staring up at her.

"Hermione," he called, softening his tone.

He wasn't sure how to make this right. The last time he had fucked up a friendship with that word, he had never been forgiven.

She was hurting, he knew that, but he wasn't exactly unaffected either. He had lashed out at her and while his grief was no excuse, surely she could at least understand it.

"Hermione, come down."

"Fuck off," she retorted, sounding more petulant than angry. Likely because of her upset.

"Please, come down."

Hermione lifted her head, peering down at him in surprised confusion. He very rarely used his manners. In fact, she couldn't be sure she had ever heard him use them.

Severus sighed. Ok, she wasn't going to come down it seemed, but at least he had her attention.

"I...I'm sorry," he said, causing her eyebrows to shoot straight up.

"Careful, you might make me fall out of my tree," she said.

"Perhaps I would get lucky and you'd break your leg, then you would be stuck here and would have to listen to me."

She saw a slight twitch of his lips, even if she hadn't she would still know it was a joke, partially.

"I'm not above sticking my fingers in my ears and making stupid noises to drown you out."

Hermione did do as he asked though, swinging down from her branch. He rarely used his manners, and he definitely never apologized, if he was whipping those out now, he had to be sincere on some level.

"Well, I forgive you. But if you ever call me that again I'll..." She trailed off as she fished for a threat. "I'll stab you in the eye while you sleep."

Severus nodded solemnly. He didn't believe she actually would, but he was sure she would up and disappear. At least she had forgiven him so easily. He had expected grovelling to be involved, perhaps stony silence until they reached their destination and they would part ways on a negative note. Of course, he'd had no intention of actually grovelling. He had done that enough in his life, to Lily, to the Dark Lord, to Dumbledore. And where had that got him? He was done grovelling.

They fell into step beside each other as they continued on in silence, still not the comfortable kind they had enjoyed before all this, now it was particularly strained.

"About the Malfoy's," Severus began, drawing her expectant gaze. "I would rather we did not talk about them, at least not so soon, not while it is so...fresh."

Hermione nodded. "I'm sorry."

Severus just shook his head, letting her know to drop it. Hermione stopped walking, her fists clenching and unclenching.

"No I- I'm sorry for not being able to do anything," she said.

Severus turned back to her. What was she on about?

"I didn't know what to do. I tried to make my magic fix him but it wouldn't," she continued.

She wiped almost angrily at her face, swiping away the tears. Severus finally clicked on to what she was talking about. She felt responsible for Draco's death too, likely Narcissa's as well. If one hadn't happened, the other wouldn't have either. Severus felt responsible too and could identify well with her guilt. He walked slowly towards her, searching for words that might help.

"Healing is a very specialised branch of magic Hermione," he told her. "Draco's injury was severe, none but a professional healer would have even a chance of saving him in those conditions. I posses full control of my magic and I am educated in how to use it and I was unable to save him."

"My magic has reacted in dire situations before," she protested. "Why didn't it this time?"

"Your magic reacts only when _your_ life is threatened. And it is unheard of for uncontrolled bursts of magic to manage something that complex."

She still didn't look convinced.

"Draco's death was not your fault," he said, still mildly surprised his voice could be so soft.

"Swear?"

Her voice was barely above a whisper and filled with a vulnerability he had never associated with her before. Severus just nodded in answer, hoping it would be enough. He had his own guilt to deal with, he certainly didn't want to have to suffer through hers as well.

"It still feels like it is," she uttered weakly.

He stepped closer to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, his other hand resting against the back of her head and he gently pulled her to him.

"It isn't I assure you."

He felt her arms wrap around his waist and they just stayed that way for a few brief moments while she fought back her emotional outburst.

"I'm sorry for pushing you to talk about them too," she said.

She just wanted to know he didn't blame her, she wanted to hear it wasn't her fault. It may have been selfish at this time but she needed that weight lifted. She already had the responsibility of her parents deaths, had she not been born a witch Death Eaters never would have found them. They could have gone another few years, maybe longer without tragedy striking them.

"Just don't do it any more," Severus told her.

She nodded.

"Let's keep moving.

Another nod from her and they resumed their pace. The silence felt less oppressive now, still subdued but that was to be expected. The spectre of the Malfoy's would likely hang over them for some time to come.

xXx

A/N: Bit more tragedy to go round. Narcissa and Draco are _sort of_ the Henry and Sam of this story. Anyway, as always, thanks heaps for reading. And for the faves, alerts and reviews.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Hermione gazed out over the city of Cork. It was a nice sunny day, the warmth finally starting to seep back into the world though there was still a distinctive chill. But it was nice lying down in the sun. They had climbed up onto the roof of a camper van to give them a height vantage while they studied their destination. They were both lying down on their stomachs, taking the time they hadn't when they entered Waterford.

"Where exactly are we supposed to go?" Hermione asked softly.

Severus had wondered the exact same thing. Dumbledore hadn't told him, because of the initial plan there had been no need and Severus hadn't cared to ask. That was coming back to bite him now.

"Do you have any binoculars?" Hermione asked.

"No."

"What about a spell for zoom vision or something?"

Severus' brow knit together. "No, but keep that in mind, inventing one would actually be rather useful."

"Is it very had to invent a spell?"

"Some people have actually done it inadvertently," he told her. "Depending on what you want it can be quite difficult. I've invented a fair few in my time. But we are getting side tracked."

He rolled to his side and drew a symbol into the grime of the roof they lay upon. She frowned down at it.

"A...wiggly bird?"

"It is a phoenix aflame," he snapped.

She snorted and rolled onto her side, trying to stifle her laugh. He couldn't draw! At all! "You reckon?"

"Shut it. This is the symbol of the Order of the Phoenix. They place it over Order safe houses."

"Why not make it invisible like that house in London?"

Invisible? There was more to the bloody Fidelius Charm than invisibility. It wasn't even invisibility, they essentially took an entire property and made it non-existent, completely hidden, undetectable and unplottable while still being accessible to a select few. The magics involved were complex and- _Drop it Severus. You can't cure everyone's ignorance._

"Out here, the Corrupted are drawn to the magic anyway," he informed her. "While wizards wouldn't be able to find it or even feel it as they passed, Corrupted don't have that problem."

"Oh."

"Now, the symbols will be in discreet places, hard to find."

"It'll be like a game," she said, clearly eager for the challenge though there was still that lingering sadness in her eyes. She was trying to get back to normal and he wouldn't sabotage her efforts.

"Think of it however you want, just keep your eyes open for them. Only the red ones mean anything, other colours are simply decoys. Come on, we'll head into the city, there should be road signs directing us to the hospital which is where I would imagine they'd set up base considering what they're trying to achieve. We will start with those anyway, come up with something else if that doesn't pan out."

Hermione nodded, swinging down from the edge of the camper van. Severus landed beside her a second later. They followed the road, weaving through the other broken down cars and trucks and around debris and old corpses. Cork was in worse condition than many of the other places they had been. A lot of evidence the muggles had tried to fight back, corpses in army uniforms, empty shells all over the place, bullet holes in walls and cars, scorch marks.

"What must it have been like?" She asked quietly, so quietly he almost missed it.

"What?"

"To just be living your life and then one day something you never thought could exist, is trying to kill you for no other reason than being you."

"You should know, you must have known wizards have wanted you dead for some time," he said.

"Yeah, my whole life," she replied. "But I always knew wizards existed. I mean, what must it have felt like to have your whole world turned up on its head like that. Then, if you survived that, you had the Corrupted to deal with. It just...must have really sucked."

"No more so than your life I would imagine."

She tossed him a scowl for the dig and his being unnecessarily difficult. "But I've lived my whole life this way. I've never known any different so I haven't really lost anything," she said, her brow suddenly furrowing. "Aside from the people I care about."

Her words were despondent and he could feel her entire mood darken. Suddenly talking seemed like such a bad idea and he regretted not telling her to shut up the moment she opened her mouth.

"Aren't you supposed to be positive all the time?"

"It gets hard sometimes," she said, low and quick.

That wasn't the response he had been trying to elicit.

"I guess, I'm alive. And...well, I still have you so that's something," she continued.

His brows rose slightly and he looked down at her, trying to decide whether or not she was joking.

"Well, we're friends aren't we?"

How she managed to sound like she was both asking a question and stating a fact was a feat in itself. He actually felt a bit of a lump in his throat at her blunt and honest statement. After the recent loss of the Malfoy's and them being his only close friends, there was some kind of relief in being able to call this girl friend. He also knew he could trust her, she was honest and he was sure she was loyal. He didn't feel like he had to watch his back around her, he actually knew she would look out for it for him. He would in no way tell her these things of course, there was a sting of humiliation at having a fifteen year old girl as his only friend.

He just nodded silently in answer to her question/statement and it seemed to be enough for her as she flashed him a smile. It wasn't as brilliant nor did it last as long as it used to before the Malfoy's. But at least it was making a reappearance.

Severus returned to his continual scanning of their surroundings, he was done with their 'heart to heart' now. He inwardly sneered at the thought before something caught his attention.

"There, look," he said, tapping her arm and pointing at the road sign up ahead. An arrow with the word hospital and the little cross symbol was printed on it, among other things.

"Convenient," she muttered.

They followed it, turning down the street. It was very quiet, the suspicious kind of quiet. She could tell by Severus' uneasy posture he felt the same as well. Their instincts were screaming a them, something was going to happen they could feel it.

"Get out of sight," he growled, his voice low and tight.

They headed over to the nearest building and hid inside, keeping an eye out for what had set off their senses like that. There was nothing, no indication of anything, just their instincts screaming at them. It was almost a full minute before it became clear as Death Eaters dropped all over the city from what they could see, the trails of black smoke a dead give-away. Out on the road in front of the shop they were hiding in was a group of six. Their voices carried easily to the two in hiding.

"Right, you know what to do, you all have your routes. Travel in pairs and remember the Dark Lord wants them alive."

He was speaking in an almost bored tone, this was clearly something they had done frequently. Were the Death Eaters here for them? Who else could they be after? But how had they known they were headed for Cork? Had one of the murdered Order members back in Liverpool told them?

Too many questions and he doubted he would ever get any answers. He wordlessly ushered Hermione further back into the store, finding stairs to the cellar in the back room.

Hermione shuddered as she peered down into the darkness. Severus pulled out his torch and flicked it on, easing her apprehension some what. They quietly made their way down looking for some place that would hide them. Severus spotted it first, a sewer grate in the floor. He silently lifted the heavy grate and the pair climbed down, Severus being sure to return it to its place so as not to give them away.

They could smell the stench of death down here and they knew the Corrupted had been down here as well, had killed down here. They made their way through the tunnels. By this point the hospital was no longer a priority, they just wanted to stay hidden from the Death Eaters.

They stayed down in the sewers for hours, aimlessly wandering in the general direction they had been going up on the surface. They were just relieved the sewers hadn't proven to be as infested as they had originally feared, they had only come across a couple of them and they were easily taken out quietly.

"Hey Severus," she whispered, pointing at something on the wall when she had his attention.

On the brick wall was a small red phoenix aflame. It was right next to a ladder so hopefully there would be something useful up there. There was always the chance that the place had been long since abandoned though. Severus knew the Order kept supply and safe houses dotted throughout the UK but with their numbers dwindling getting people out there to replenish those houses was difficult.

"Wait here," he told her.

He handed her the torch, having long ago picked up on her unease in the dark and he wouldn't be so cruel as to leave her down there alone with no light.

Climbing the ladder, he cautiously lifted the trap door, it wasn't a sewer grate and he figured the Order must have altered it. As soon as he had enough space to see, he stopped lifting and waited for his eyes to adjust to the dim light. He had entered what amounted to a small closet it was that small. But this tiny room was a treasure trove of useful items. He grabbed some ammo, shoving it into his pack, a couple of cans of baked beans and soup and some arrows he saw propped up in the corner. Hermione would be able to make use of those. He only took enough for what they would need, the food should last him until he and Hermione found the facility, or it would be pleasant extra for himself when they parted ways. He left enough ammo to be of use to the next Order member that came along, if one ever did. That place had looked as if no one entered it in over a decade.

He climbed back down and showed Hermione the small haul. She gave him a grateful smile as she accepted the arrows, dropping them into her quiver.

"So the Order were forced to the sewers too?"

He glanced at the Order symbol on the wall then looked back at her. "Obviously," he drawled sarcastically.

She rolled her eyes. "You know, you could have said 'yes' and it would have involved less effort than that dramatic and unnecessary show of sarcasm."

"When it's second nature it takes no effort," he told her, smirking as he took the torch back from her.

She couldn't help the light laugh that escaped her as she followed after him.

xXx

It wasn't until sunset neared that the pair finally left the refuge of the sewers. They had no idea if the Death Eaters were still around but hoped they would have given up for the day as it reached its end.

They kept closely to cover as they continued on, taking some time to get their bearings and get back on track to the hospital. Since what happened with Draco, they had been on high alert almost constantly, their senses strained to near breaking point. Losing people like that had really put them on edge.

The signs indicating the hospital were becoming frequent, they were closing the distance. Hermione was actually nervous about it. She still wasn't sure what kind of things they would do to her and she would actually miss Severus. The arse had turned out to be quite likeable once you got used to him.

With sunset so close, Hermione wondered if Severus would keep them going through the night and close the short distance now that their goal was within reach or if he would take the safe route and find somewhere defensible to hole up for the night. She didn't dare ask though. Since coming back to the surface they had been silent, hardly a word spoken between them and she didn't want to be the idiot who spoke and broke what weak streak of luck they seemed to be walking.

It wasn't even a minute after that thought had passed through her mind that all hell broke loose. Death Eaters apparated in, completely surrounding them. How the hell had they known!?

But then others started pouring in from all directions. Not Death Eaters though, they didn't use wands, they didn't apparate, they just charged at speeds Hermione wouldn't have though possible in humans.

Severus shifted closer to her trying to shelter her, reaching out with one arm to bring her close to him.

"Werewolves," he muttered.

Hermione was tempted to latch onto his arm, terrified. These people looked absolutely wild and rabid. She resisted though, having enough presence of mind to know restricting his movements would be a terrible idea.

"What do we do?" She whispered it, not wanting to draw back the attention of the Death Eaters who were now turning to focus on the werewolves.

"We hope they tear each other to pieces and we try to escape during the fray," he told her. The werewolves could very well be a blessing in disguise. "Take my hand and do not let go."

She did it almost immediately, gripping it tightly. With his other hand he drew his gun as the encroaching werewolves hit the circle of Death Eaters. Spells were flying, the sound of flesh hitting flesh, screams, cries, feral growls, guns and epithets all crashed together causing a hideous cacophony. At first all Severus did was drop into a crouch, pulling Hermione down with him. They were lucky enough that the Death Eaters and werewolves were too preoccupied with each other. The werewolves outnumbered the Death Eaters, but they had the disadvantage of no magic. Being half breeds they would have been denied wands, stripped of them if they had them before contracting the disease.

Severus tried to weave them through the fighting, a couple of times either him or Hermione would be grabbed, but she never let go of his hand and he held onto her just as tightly. He shot anyone who paid any attention to them and when they hit the edge of the brawl he took off running, dragging Hermione behind him. There were shouts calling for their capture as their desperate escape was noticed. It spurred Severus to run faster. Hermione was able to keep up once she found her footing and matched it to Severus'.

Hermione caught a flash of light from the corner of her eye and suddenly Severus dropped, sprawled across the ground. She heard him make this horrible sound, but with the dying light and the shadows of the buildings around them she couldn't make out what the problem was. She grabbed his gun since he didn't seem inclined to move and she whirled around on the wizard who had shot at them. She fired, missing him completely, but he still ducked to avoid her shot. Hermione quickly fired again, winging him in the shoulder, letting off another shot and hitting him in the chest. He went down but he was still moving a bit, and groaning. He wouldn't be following them though.

She turned back to Severus. Why wasn't he getting up? She crouched down beside him, he had rolled over and she could make out blood on his side, she could smell it.

"Oh my God what happened?"

"I fell on something," he hissed through clenched teeth.

She shifted his hand away to get a look. Whatever it had been, it had gone deep from what little she was able to make out. She glanced around and found the culprit, a twisted piece of metal. It was amidst a bunch of other rubbish, but she could just catch the blood staining the end of it.

"Fuck," she breathed. "Can you walk?"

"Yes."

He looked like he was in a lot of pain and there was a lot of blood pouring out of him.

"The hospital shouldn't be far," she said, hoping she wasn't wrong. "We can take you there, they'll be able to help you."

She took his hands and pulled him up, he groaned at the pain the movement caused and pressed down firmly on the wound, hoping to slow the blood. Hermione covered his back, keeping an eye out for enemies. But it seemed their departure was going mostly disregarded.

Severus was practically staggering his way towards the hospital, leaning heavily against whatever he could find to hold his weight. Hermione moved to help him, wrapping his arm over her shoulders so she could support him but he shoved her away.

"Keep...an eye out."

She did as she was told, casting him a concerned look before keeping watch around them. She kept a tight hold of Severus' gun. It would probably take a while before she got used to shooting it. Even though she knew to expect a bit of a kick, it still surprised her every time and threw off her aim.

Their pace was getting slower and slower and she kept watching him, he was in a really bad way but he still refused her help, adamant she keep watch. He suddenly stumbled into the wall, no longer walking just panting heavily, hunched over as it seemed to take all his effort just to remain upright.

"Severus?" He was paler than usual, his eyes sort of glazed, pain etched into every crevice of his face. "We're almost there, just a little bit more."

She still wasn't sure if that was right. It had been Severus who had indicated they were close. But his definition of close and hers could vary quite drastically at times. And she could bet he hadn't factored in one of them being so grievously injured.

"We're not being followed," she said. "Let me help you."

"Corrupted," he muttered.

He didn't seem able to manage much more than that. She knew the Corrupted were a danger too and had likely heard the commotion or felt the magic from it, but they couldn't stay here. He needed to move. It felt too callous to rush him, he was hurt but she didn't want their situation to get worse either.

"Look, I'll keep and eye out and I'll be super careful, just let me help you," she insisted.

He hesitated a moment before giving her a pained nod. She ducked under his arm and started them moving. He must have been in so much pain. She hoped the metal hadn't pierced anything vital like it had with Draco and her eyes stung at the very thought of going through something like that again. She hurried them along, doing as she promised and keeping her eyes and ears open for danger. They rounded the corner and Hermione stared down the street. There were signs for the hospital, they had arrived but her stomach sank at what she saw.

"It's gone," her voice cracked on the words.

The place was just ruins. It looked like a fire had utterly gutted the place. She hurried towards it, hoping it was just some kind of wizard trick. Maybe they had hidden the real hospital behind an illusion.

When they finally stood in front of the building she was even more horrified to find corpses, charred beyond recognition and hanging from what was left of the large building. She lowered Severus to the ground as gently as she could.

"Maybe they're just Corrupted," she said looking down at Severus who was staring as well but she couldn't be sure how much he was taking in with that glazed look to his eyes.

"No...Order."

Hermione knew he was right, no one would waste this kind of tine on Corrupted. This was a message and Corrupted lacked the brain capacity to understand. But this was a devastating blow. She had been relying on this hospital to be here, for there to be people to give Severus the help he needed. What was she supposed to do with him now?

_Don't panic, you're useless when you panic._

"Ok...ok..." She glanced around them, looking for something.

Shelter, night was coming. She would need light to do what she could for Severus, somewhere safe for him and warm.

"Fuck," she hissed. "Ok...I'm going to help you up and we're going to go to that building over there."

Hermione preferred apartment buildings or hotels when staying in cities. Lots of rooms to keep anyone looking for them busy, with a couple of sound alarms rigged at entrances she would have time to get away or hide. She would have to settle for the row of houses across the road.

She helped Severus to the nearest house, he was barely able to help her at all in holding up his weight and she was practically dragging him. After setting him down on the stairs, she opened the door, gun out. She listened carefully but couldn't pick up any noises to indicate the presence of Corrupted. Returning for Severus, she helped him inside, taking him up the stairs. She checked the second floor, not thoroughly, but enough to be reasonably assured they would be ok. She found a room that was a little less wrecked by looters, Corrupted and time and brought Severus inside. By the time she got him onto the bed in the bedroom she had to stop and take a breather, wiping the sweat from her brow and onto her sleeve.

First things first, block everything so their light wouldn't be seen. She quickly set to it, pinning up layers of sheets and blankets that she could find then she returned to the bedroom and lit some candles.

Severus was still breathing but his eyes were closed. She grabbed his pack, rummaging through it to see what was left of their potions stores. A couple of low potency pain potions were all she could come up with. She took them out anyway, but if Severus was passed out there was no point in wasting them when he probably wouldn't feel the pain anyway. She pulled out their makeshift first aid kit, it had some antibacterial hand gel, tweezers, expired cough medicine, some bandages, plasters, a sewing kit, a scalpel they had found, some disinfectant and some wipes. Something in there had to be useful. She grabbed the water bottle too and climbed onto the bed beside Severus, unbuttoning his coat and shifting it aside then lifting his shirts to get a look at the wound. The bleeding had slowed significantly. Was that good or had he just run out of blood? Well, he was still alive so that was good, nothing vital could have been pierced could it? What was even in that vicinity on the inside? She had a pretty good idea of the anatomy of deer, rabbits, birds assuming the different species were similar. But people, she only had a general idea, heart, lungs, brain...

She stared at the wound, it was deep. Should she just pour disinfectant straight in? It would hurt but would it do damage? Fears of disintegrating his insides sprung to mind. Could she just accio out any dirt or debris in there? What about summoning bacteria to her? Would the spell work under the command 'accio anything that doesn't belong?' She should really start experimenting with the flexibility of that spell at some point. Not now though, too important to risk.

Hermione forced her doubts away and just worked, cleaning her hands, cleaning the wound, a bit of prayer though she wasn't sure how effective that would be, then she stitched it up and bandaged it.

Severus was still alive by the end of it so...fantastic. But he was still pale and he had lost a lot of blood. She supposed that could only be replenished over time, he would need food and rest.

She took stock of their rations, not too bad for a couple of days, but she didn't know when Severus would be up. She could go without until she found some more, or just survive off a couple of mouthfuls of what she gave to Severus. At least they were good on water.

With that taken care of she needed to turn her attention to their protection. She grabbed Severus' torch and left the bedroom, flicking it on and keeping low. The windows out in the other rooms hadn't been covered. She kept her fingers partly over the torchlight in an attempt to dim it a little but it really didn't work as she had hoped. So she found a rag and wrapped the torch in that, it worked much better. Still, any light was dangerous but she couldn't go without it. The first task was covering over the windows. It was slow going since she had to do it without making a noise and she didn't want to risk using magic as she hadn't thoroughly checked the building. She didn't know how strong the spell had to be before it drew Corrupted or at what range.

Once covering the windows she felt she could move about more freely and checked all the entrances and exits to the house. Front door and the back door. Though it shared walls with the house next door, there was no adjoining entrance. The front door had a couple of deadbolts and a chain. That was something at least. She would have to move things closer so she could start on a barricade should the need arise. But she would do that tomorrow, once she checked out the building and got a grasp on how much magic or how much noise she could make. Sound traps she would work on tomorrow too. For now, the safety of the doors. She bolted them and locked them and wedged a bunch of random items under it to make it harder to open and left a pile of utensils next to it. If someone did get the door open without making a noise, the sound of the utensils clattering across the hardwood floor should alert her.

After that, she checked the bathroom and the kitchen and was able to add a bag of rice to their supplies.

She returned to the bedroom, the candles still lit. She curled up next to Severus on the bed, on his uninjured side. Even in sleep the man did not look all that peaceful. He had probably seen some horrible things as a Death Eater. Or maybe, even though he was unconscious he was still feeling the pain of his wound.

With a sigh she blew out the candles and reached out for him, resting her hand on his chest. She intended to leave it there all night. If his breathing stopped, she hoped some part of her would register it and wake her up so she could do something about it. As well as his light breathing she could feel his heartbeat beneath her hand. It was reassuring, but she still wasn't sure she would be able to get any sleep. Anything could happen at any moment, anyone could die in the blink of an eye. She was a little afraid to take her eyes off of who she did still have.

This whole journey had been fraught with obstacles, disaster and loss. It was one thing after another. The murder of the Order members in Liverpool, the Death Eaters that turned up directly after, Severus' dark mark problems, his recovery after what Regulus did, the Malfoys... At the mere thought of them it felt like that slow healing wound had been torn open. She already missed Draco something fierce.

She hoped where ever they were, that they were together and in some place a hell of a lot better than this. Hermione wasn't religious, but she clung to the notion that there was something after this, something more. She had read the bible, it was hard not to, it was the book she had come across more than any other. She had even seen corpses gripping tightly to their copies. She didn't really agree with much of the bible. How could she really? It was filled with inconsistencies, nonsensical stories and acts no decent person should do to another all sanctioned by a God they claimed was merciful. But she liked the idea of a higher power that maybe watched over or at least guided people. Maybe not even a sentient being, just a force that interfered from time to time.

It was the only thing she could really think of to explain her luck. In the blast, Draco had been fatally wounded, and now Severus was in a pretty bad way, in the Death Eater attack her parents had died while she lived. Theon...well, she didn't know what happened to him but she hoped he was out there and ok.

But maybe there was something protecting her considering her streak of luck. Or maybe her magic was sapping other peoples luck. Could it do that? Maybe her magic was the force protecting her since it had no other outlet as she couldn't cast until recently. Even now she couldn't do it that often.

Or maybe some things it was just better not to think about.

She stared at Severus, though she couldn't actually see him, far too dark. But she could feel his heart and hear his breathing, if she just focused on those two things then she could forget about the dark and everything that was wrong.

"Please don't leave me alone," she whispered. She didn't want to be left alone again.


End file.
